Phoenix Feathers
by Audrianna13
Summary: Being Rewritten  Madara has completely destroyed Konoha. Only Naruto and Sasuke are left after killing him, and with nothing to live for they send themselves back in time, but receive some help on the way that furthers their plans beyond expectations.
1. The Forbidden Jutsu

**A/N: Okay, I know that I should probably be working on something else (a.k.a my HP fics which I haven't updated in almost two months and three/four months respectively) but this really grabbed my mind and I could write it without having to be at a computer, unlike with GPROotP. Thus, here it is. It's another really common kind of fic, but I'm a total sucker for time travel and I've begun delving deeply into the Naruto fandom. So...yeah...**

**Thanks to everyone who has written Naruto time travel fanfics. That was what inspired me to start my own.**

**Disclaimer: Ownership no Jutsu! ... ... It didn't work! What's with that? ...shoot. Well, I don't own Naruto. I was so sure that was going to work, too!  
**

"Sasuke?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Are you ready?"

"Yes sir."

"You know when and where to meet up should this actually work?"

"Yes sir."

"I'll see you there, then…teme."

Sasuke snorted. "Dobe."

The last two Konoha shinobi stood across from each other, flashing through handsigns. Slowly, the air around them filled with chakra. The 20-year-old ANBU Commander and 19-year-old Rokudaime Hokage looked each other in the eyes as they finished the last few signs.

"Let's save them all," said Naruto, his eyes deadly serious.

"Hai."

With that, they clapped their hands together and roared the name of the jutsu.

"**Second Chance of the Phoenix**!"

Everything vanished in a flash of bright light.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes to see…nothing. Just black space.

"Sasuke?" he called out. "Sasuke? Oi, Sasuke-teme! Answer me, you Kami cursed idiot!"

Nothing. No calm voice responding to his insults.

"Damn it!" the Namikaze-Uzumaki swore. "Dammit! Where the hell am I? This was supposed to work! Why didn't it _work_?"

"**It did**.**"**

Naruto whirled around. "Who's there?"

"**Do not be afraid, child,"** whispered the voice. It came from nowhere and everywhere, up and down, behind him and in front of him, from the right and the left. **"I have heard your plea, along with the dark one's, and I shall grant you it. None of this was supposed to have happened…go back, and fix it."**

Hope shone in Naruto's eyes as he stared around, trying to find who spoke. "You're going to let us go?"

"**Yes…"**

"Thank you," Naruto breathed. "Thank you so much."

"**The Kyuubi no Kistune,"** said the voice. **"How are your…relations?"**

"We get along," said Naruto, shrugging. "It's been better since we made that contract. He makes snide comments and gives me chakra. I at least know that if he got out he wouldn't try to kill any of my frie—well, he wouldn't try to kill _Sasuke_." Naruto smiled bitterly.

"**That is good,"** said the voice. "**Nine tails…you may return nine people's memories.**"

"What?"

"**Look at your right wrist,"** instructed the voice.

Naruto did as he was told. Nine black feathers wreathed in crimson flames circled his wrist.

"**When you wish for someone to have their memories returned, concentrate on one of the feathers. Press it to their forehead and order them to remember. The dark one has a feather as well. Tell him, 'There are other times. That was not the last.' He will understand."**

"Thank you so much," whispered Naruto.

"**Do not disappoint me, Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto," **said the voice. **"Farewell."**

A burst of white light in the darkness, and Naruto was gone.

"**Good luck. You'll need it."**

**

* * *

**

Review please!

**A/N: Okay, so the feathers idea came from 'Yet again, with a little extra help' by Third Fang. I couldn't resist - it's a nice and simple way of giving people their memories back! Of course, Third Fang used chain links, and Naruto could regain the chain if the person he returned the memories to had died/almost died...it was a bit more complicated and detailed than that when Ghost explained it to Naruto, but...**

**So, I'm already done with the second chapter, and am typing up the third right now. I've got thirteen front-and-back pages of notebook paper filled. No worries there. I just have to actually type the stuff up. And I will. I'm kind of stepping away from the HP fandom for a bit. I'm not giving up my HP fics, but they're not going to come out very fast. Sorry, my HP readers.**

**Ja ne!**

**~Audrianna out!  
**


	2. We Made It!

**A/N: All right, second chapter! The ONLY reason that it took so long to post was because we're having Internet issues at home. I, of course, typed up all my stuff on my laptop, and then...the wireless router broke. O woe is me. Thankfully, the public library in town has WiFi! Thank you my amazing library! Enjoy the chapter...**

**Disclaimer: As the Ownership Jutsu appears to have failed last time, I shall try it again. Maybe it's like a Firefox browser with the Inbox for - by that I mean you have to refresh the page. Maybe it worked, but I didn't know it 'cause I didn't refresh the page! Woot! Okay, just a sec...and...**

**...it didn't work. WHY? Well, I STILL don't own Naruto...  
**

Naruto groaned as he woke up, the alarm next to his bed blaring in his ear. He smashed a hand down on it to shut it up.

_What do I need to do today?_ He thought blearily. _Translate that stupid scroll…it was talking about time travel jutsu's – wait! Time travel!_

He sat up quickly, memories coming back to him. He glanced around, recognizing the familiar posters of ramen decorating his old (current?) apartment that Pein had razed (would raze?) to the ground when he attacked.

At any rate, this was definitely not the Namikaze Manor, nor the ruins of Konoha.

"I made it back," whispered Naruto. "YES! I made it!"

He scrambled out of bed and gazed out the window to drink in the sight of a healthy, happy, _alive _Konoha. The blond snorted when he saw looked at the Hokage Mountain. _It looks so weird without baa-chan's face…and mine…_

"What day is it?" Naruto asked himself out loud, glancing over at the calendar hanging on the wall. It was the day before the Genin Exams, which meant…"Dammit, I have the Academy today!"

Naruto ran over to his wardrobe and pulled it open to see…orange.

"Ah," he muttered. "I had almost forgotten I used to always wear so much orange. Man, I miss my cloak…"

Sighing, Naruto pulled out a jumpsuit and put it on, then grabbed a bowl of instant ramen, poured some water in it, and warmed it with a Katon to eat on the way to the Academy. He also slipped on the goggles that had worn all the time before he got his hitai-ate.

_All right, so right now it's a day before the Genin Exam…I need to meet up with Sasuke and we'll discuss what to do then…12:00 at Team Seven training grounds…_

* * *

Naruto walked into the Academy a few minutes later, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Scratch that, he felt _awful. _Another thing he had forgotten was how much the citizens of Konoha hated him before the Pein incident and him becoming Hokage. It depressed him slightly, but also annoyed him somewhat.

_Do they really doubt my father's sealing abilities that much? He was the best! He was better than his teacher, Jiraiya of the Sannin! Speaking of Ero-sennin…I'M STILL MAD AT YOU FOR NOT TELLING ME YOU WERE MY GODFATHER! I'M ALSO MAD AT YOU FOR NOT TELLING ME THE YONDAIME WAS MY FATHER! Iwa nins coming after me or not, I think you should have let the truth out. I can take care of myself! Well, at least I could in the future. I wonder what skills I've retained…_

He entered the classroom still deep in thought, then looked around, wondering where to sit.

The future Rokudaime caught a flash of blue and black out the corner of his eye and turned to see Sasuke. The Uchiha was staring directly into his eyes. Naruto held the look. Sasuke slowly nodded, smirking.

"Dobe," he mouthed. _"Hokage-sama,"_ his eyes said.

"TEME!" Naruto shouted, playing the part of being an idiot, though he was grinning ear to ear. _"Sasuke, my friend,"_ his eyes returned.

WHAM!

Naruto crumpled to the ground as a fist smashed into his head. He looked up to see Sakura standing threateningly above him.

"Ah," he said. _Kuso!_ "Sakura-chan!"

"You're so annoying!" the pinkette shouted, glaring at him. Naruto caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman and amazing medic nin she would become for a brief moment before that vanished and she was back in her twelve-year-old fangirl mode. "Sasuke-kun!" she squealed.

Sasuke had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Really, Sakura was so annoying in this time…

Naruto was sitting on the floor, rubbing his head and trying to figure out what to do. _On the one hand, in this time I would usually just bounce right back up and demand a date from Sakura, but that seems so __wrong__ – it'd feel like I'd be betraying Hinata-chan…and not to mention what Lee would do if he could somehow came back from the grave and travel through time to here…_Naruto winced at the thought. Yes, the Springtime of Youth had traumatized him for life. _Or I could just go sit by someone…_

His mind made up, Naruto jumped to his feet and looked around for a place to sit. The only places open were next to some nameless other Sasuke fangirl (_no!_), Ino (_MAJOR NO!_), Sasuke (tempting, but Sakura was dead set on sitting there), or…

"Hinata-chan!" shouted Naruto, running towards the back of the room and to his future wife.

Hinata's eyes widened at the sight of her crush running towards her and calling her name (_-chan?_). She felt a blush stain her cheeks as her brain overloaded and she fainted.

_I forgot she used to do that all the time,_ thought Naruto fondly as he sat in the chair next to her.

A few seconds later Hinata's eyes fluttered. She opened them to see the grinning face of Naruto in front of her.

"N-Naruto-kun?" she managed to stutter out.

"Good morning, Hinata-chan!" said Naruto cheerfully.

"H-h-hello, N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata said, before fainting again.

Naruto shrugged. Until he could give the kunoichi her memories back (and he most definitely would!) and thus by default have her regain her confidence, there wasn't really anything he could do about the fainting situation. For now he would just wait patiently and try to…pay attention…in…class…z z z

* * *

The bell rang and everyone rushed out for lunch. Everyone except the two time travelers, that is. They made their way leisurely from the classroom and then around the corner of the school.

Naruto nodded to Sasuke and vanished in a swirling tornado of wind and fire. Sasuke smirked before following the blond with a crackle of lightning.

No one noticed their disappearance.

* * *

**All RIGHT! Second chapter - done! Here come more!**

**Please review, by the way. **

**Seriously. I've gotten three review so far. Thus I thank **Sasuke's pal **and **Luiz4200 **profusely. Yay first reviewers! I also thank **Mej Cat**, but she's my bud (and I specifically told her about it), so it was also sort of obligatory...I STILL LOVE YOU FOR IT, MEJ CAT!****  
**


	3. I'M NOT SHORT!

**A/N: Oh yeah, second chapter today...third chapter total! I iz so proud...**

**Disclaimer: It turns out that the OJ didn't just need to be refreshed...I still don't own Naruto. This is all just so unfair!

* * *

**

**At Team Seven Training Grounds:**

"Teme," Naruto greeted his long time friend. The Rokudaime was standing in front of the memorial stone, looking down at it sadly. He could imagine all the names that had been added in the future. _Ojii-san…Ero-sennin…Baa-chan…Kakashi-sensei…so many others…_

"Hokage-sama," said Sasuke formally, standing at attention.

"Relax, Sasuke," said Naruto tiredly. "I don't know why you always have to be so polite…"

Sasuke frowned. "Uchiha," he offered as an explanation, allowing disgust to lace his tone. He was still extremely pissed about his family's planned betrayal of the Leaf Village.

Naruto nodded in understanding, turning to face the ANBU Commander.

"…Kami, you're short," said Sasuke. He had finally actually _looked _at his leader.

"WHAT WAS THAT, TEME?"

"You…look very…young," said Sasuke after a moment's hesitation on what to say.

Naruto just groaned. "Well, you look 'very young', too," he said. "So…any complications getting back?"

"No," said Sasuke slowly. "However, there was something…odd."

Naruto looked sharply at him. "What was it?"

Sasuke raised his right arm and pulled down the arm warmer there. On the underside of his forearm was a familiar looking black feather with crimson flames.

"Ah," said Naruto, looking relieved. "That's all right, then."

"But what _is _it?" pressed Sasuke, showing a little more emotion than usual.

"Present from the Time Goddess," the blond said blandly. The voice _had _been distinctly female, when he had thought of it.

Sasuke almost lost all his composure. "You met with the Time Goddess?" he asked finally, regaining control. "And 'she' gave me…a feather?"

Naruto nodded earnestly. "Yeah, I was with her for a bit! She said that none of what happened was supposed to have, so she was allowing to be sent back. She also said that with the feather we could restore the memory of whoever we so chose."

"Feathers? As in plural?"

"Oh, yeah," said Naruto. He pulled back his bright orange sleeve – Sasuke had winced when he first saw the monstrosity again – to reveal the nine black feathers circling his right wrist. "I have some too."

Sasuke counted them quickly. "Nine. Is that a reference to –?"

"Yeah," said Naruto. "Yeah…she said she gave on to you because…well, she told me to tell you, 'There are other times. That was not the last'. Of course, I have absolutely no idea what that meant…"

Sasuke's mind had stumbled to a halt at his older brother's favorite saying. It was something that he had never told anyone about, even though they all knew Itachi was innocent. As innocent as you can be after killing 314 people related to you on your Kage's orders, at any rate.

"—suke? Sasuke?"

Sasuke blinked. "I'm fine," he said automatically. "I just know who my feather is for."

Naruto nodded. He had a good guess, even if he didn't know what the message meant.

"So," Sasuke fished around for a subject. "Who are we going to return memories to?"

"Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, definitely. Shikamaru, because we could use his brains. Gaara. Ero-sennin and Baa-chan. Nagato." At Sasuke's blank look, he amended himself. "Pein. Um…Hinata?"

"You just want your wife back," said Sasuke, rolling his eyes.

Naruto smiled sadly. He missed her. "Yeah." Then he added, "But she's a damn good fighter, you have to admit."

"Anyone else?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment. With all those people we would have one feather left…"

"The Sandaime?" Sasuke suggested.

Naruto frowned. "I don't know. I think we should keep it in reserve. If he questions us, we can talk to him about it."

Sasuke nodded.

"…"

"…"

"This certainly makes everything easier, doesn't it?" said Naruto cheerfully. "We won't be all alone in this."

Sasuke nodded again.

"Well," sighed Naruto. "I guess for now we should just try to keep the timeline the same. That way we can get to the snake bastard in the Forest of Death. We'll deal with the repercussions of that afterwards and then try to deal with what comes next as it occurs…especially Madara."

Sasuke let out a "Hn," in agreement.

"Let's get back to the Academy – we, I, can give Sakura, Hinata-chan, and Shika their memories back," said Naruto.

Sasuke nodded for the third time and disappeared with the crackle of lightning. Naruto stayed for a moment in front of the memorial stone. He ran his hand over it softly, pausing over his father's name.

_We're going to change everything_, Naruto promised himself. Then the blond vanished with wind and fire to meet up with his friend.

* * *

**Before anyone asks, Sasuke disappears with lightning because that's one of his affinities and he seems to fight with lightning a lot. Naruto disappears with fire and wind because wind is his affinity and fire equals Kyuubi-kun.**

**Any ideas on who the last feather should be for? I'm either going to keep it in reserve for a while or take one of your suggestions.**

**Review please!  
**


	4. Tch, How Troublesome

**A/N: Just a small town girl/Living in a lone~ly world/Took the midnight train/Going an~y~where...sorry, I'm listening to Don't Stop Believing by Journey right now. It's a good song. Anyway, third chapter today! July 27, 2010 is a good day for you lot, ne?  
**

**Disclaimer: I'm working on it! I just haven't perfected my plan yet! ...yes, as of the moment this means that I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto still does. No need to rub that in.  
**

"Hey, Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru sighed. He was up on the roof watching the clouds, having already finished lunch. Chouji had gone off to train for the upcoming Genin Exam. It was too much trouble for Shikamaru to join him.

Now he was wishing he had gone with Chouji. Naruto was _much_ more troublesome.

"Yes?" he said, not looking away from the clouds.

He had to, though, when Naruto's hand entered his view, holding what looked rather like a raven's feather, except there were flames dancing around it. He didn't have time to react before the feather hit his forehead, and he heard Naruto say, **"Remember."**

Images of the future flooded his mind. Team Six. The Chuunin Exams. The Sand-Sound invasion. Tsunade as Godaime Hokage. Sasuke defecting. The timely arrival of the Sand Siblings. Three years of training passing. Naruto returning. Akatsuki. Asuma's death. Killing Hidan. Kurenai's child. Hearing of Uchiha Itachi's death. Jiraiya's death and Naruto's subsequent depression. Pein's attack. Danzou taking over as temporary Hokage. Sasuke attacking the Summit. Naruto somehow getting Sasuke to return to Konoha. The Sand invasion. Marrying Temari. Caring for Kurenai's child. Tsunade's death. Naruto becoming Rokudaime Hokage. Fighting alongside Naruto against Madara and then…pain and darkness.

"Sweet Kami," Shikamaru breathed, pressing his fingers to his temples to try and relieve the headache he had received from…whatever that was.

"Shika?" asked Naruto anxiously. "Did it work?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," said the Nara wearily. "Tch. How troublesome. I need a cigarette."

Naruto grinned and launched himself at Shikamaru, laughing. "Shika! It's good to have you back!"

Shikamaru sighed. Naruto really w_as _more troublesome…"Wow…you're really short now, Naruto."

The blond let out a howl of outrage. "WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY THAT?"

"'Everyone'?" asked Shikamaru. "How did we get here, anyway?"

"Sasuke said I was short, too," said Naruto sullenly, not answering Shikamaru's second question.

"One other person doesn't count as everyone, Naruto," said Shikamaru, yawning.

Naruto ignored this in favor of answering the Nara's second question. "You didn't really miss much…Sasuke and I managed to take out Madara, _finally_, but everyone else was killed and Konoha destroyed. In the Forbidden Scroll there was a jutsu written in a language that hasn't been used since long before the founding of Konoha. Kyuubi translated it, called it '**Second Chance of the Phoenix**'. It took a while to set up, and it took an ungodly amount of chakra, but Sasuke and I sent ourselves back into our twelve-year-old bodies."

"What about me, then?" asked Shikamaru. He wasn't concerned about the chakra drain from Naruto, nor the casual mention of the Kyuubi – everyone in the future knew of Naruto's 'tenant'. They had also seen the smaller version of the Kyuubi running around when Naruto fashioned a body for the fox, which was part of the contract they had made.

"Oh, right," said Naruto. "Well, I was getting to that. Sasuke didn't have any difficulties getting back, but the Goddess of Time – at least, I think it was a Goddess – came and talked to me. She gave me nine feathers that could let people regain their memories of the future, and she gave one to Sasuke."

Naruto held out his right wrist to show Shikamaru the proof of it.

_I really need a smoke,_ thought Shikamaru mournfully.

"Go talk with Sasuke, he can give you more details than I have time for right now…oh, and tell Sasuke to meet in the clearing at about 12:30." With that, Naruto jumped off the roof.

Shikamaru sighed and looked at the conveniently placed clock that was on the roof, hanging on the wall right next to the stairway. It was 12:15 now.

The Nara sighed. This was all just so…troublesome. However, he dutifully climbed to his feet and set off to find a certain Uchiha.

Sakura was aimlessly wandering the grounds looking for her Sasuke-kun. He had mysteriously vanished as soon as the bell for lunch had rung…then again, he did that nearly every day…

"Sakura," said a voice from right behind her, making her jump.

She spun around to see –

"Naruto!" she shouted, raising her fist to hit him. He caught her arm before she could slam it against his head, faster than she could see him move.

"Come with me," he said, a completely serious look in his eyes for once. Sakura felt slightly unnerved by this, but she tried to hide it with bravado.

"Idiot! Why would I want to go with _you _anywhere?" she screeched.

"Please, Sakura," said Naruto. "This is important."

Sakura huffed unbelievingly but followed him anyway. They walked into the woods a little ways until they reached a clearing.

"Ooh!" Sakura gasped. "This is beautiful…"

"_This_ isn't, though," said Naruto grimly, quickly pressing a feather to the pinkette's forehead. "**Remember, **Sakura."

Sakura gasped as the same thing that had happened to Shikamaru a mere few moments repeated itself with her. For a moment she wanted to scream, but something inside her kept her quiet.

Finally, the rush of information faded, leaving her feeling slightly weak and with a nasty headache. The girl automatically channeled chakra into her hands to use a medical jutsu on her head, but Naruto's hands caught hers before she could do anything.

"Don't," he said. "We don't know what skills we have or have not retained."

Sakura nodded dumbly, rather taken aback with the whole situation. The last thing she remembered was staring across the battlefield, seeing the dead all around, then pain, blood, and…death…

"H-hai, Hokage-sama." Then she smirked mischievously. While in this situation, why not take advantage of it? "You're really short at this age, aren't you?"

Naruto threw his hands up in the air. "I give up!" he declared. "You know, you're the _third person_ to say that when they first saw me," he added grumpily.

Sakura laughed. "Oh, cheer up," she said. "You'll get a growth spurt soon enough."

"Yeah, when I'm, like, _fifteen_," grumbled Naruto.

Sakura laughed again. "Who else is back?"

"Sasuke and Shikamaru. They should be in the same place, as I told Shika to meet up with him to discuss the exact details of what happened after he…died. They're coming here at 12:30, which is…just about now."

Sakura nodded solemnly at the news of Shikamaru's death. Obviously she had died before him. She rose to her feet. "Well, I suppose I'll go find them. Make sure they're coming, y'know?" She swung her long hair over her shoulder. "Man, I really need to fix that…ja ne, Naruto-kun."

"Ja ne," replied Naruto. He watched Sakura leap away after a moment's pause to locate Sasuke and Shikamaru's chakra signals. "Hmm…I guess it's time for me to be reunited with my Hinata-chan!"

The blond ran off happily to find his future wife, and the clearing returned to the quiet it had held before the two almost-genin had come in.

* * *

**Poor Shikamaru. He didn't go training and got into something MUCH more troublesome. I had issues trying to decide whether to title this chapter "Tch...How Troublesome" or "You're the Third Person to Say That". Obviously you lot know which one won out in the end.**

**Review, please!  
**


	5. Get To It

**A/N: La di da, fourth chapter today...**

**Disclaimer: Just...a few more...minutes...I'm still ironing out the few wrinkles in my plan right now. Your days as owner of Naruto are coming to an end, Masashi Kishimoto!  
**

Hinata, too, was wandering the grounds, but she was mulling over Naruto. There was something about him today that seemed really different. He exuded confidence and demanded respect, as though he was the leader of the class, or a commanding Jounin officer…or Hokage.

There was also the fact that he had called her 'Hinata-chan'! She felt herself blush again.

"Hey, Hinata-chan!" shouted a voice behind her. She recognized it immediately.

"Na-Naruto-kun," she greeted him, blushing more.

"C'mon, I have something to show you!" he said enthusiastically, grabbing her hand practically dragging her into the woods. Hinata's face was completely red now.

After a few minutes they burst out into the same clearing that Naruto and Sakura had exited a couple of minutes before – except now Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sasuke were occupying it.

"Naruto!" called Sakura, waving from where she sat in the middle of the clearing with the two boys. Naruto squeezed Hinata's hand and walked over to them, Hinata trailing slightly behind. She couldn't help but notice he had yet to let go of her hand.

"W-what are we d-doing, N-Naruto-kun?" she asked softly.

"You'll see, Hinata-chan," said Naruto.

Hinata blushed again at the -chan added to the end of her name.

When they reached the others, the first thing Sakura said was, "Does she know?"

Naruto looked faintly annoyed as he looked down at Sakura from where he was standing. "It's not like I could do anything out in the open like that! That's why I brought her here."

"Point," said Sakura, regarding Hinata carefully.

Hinata was extraordinarily confused – what was going on here? Since when did Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Sakura (loner, lazy, and fangirl) hang out together, much less together with _Naruto_? Why were they all looking at her like that? What was up with today? Why –

"Do you trust me, Hinata?" asked Naruto, breaking into her thoughts. He looked completely serious.

Hinata hesitated for the briefest moment before nodding.

"Good," said Naruto. He raised his right hand. Hinata saw a black and red feather – _when did he get that? _– and then it was pressed against her forehead, with Naruto right in her face.

"**Remember**."

Hinata fell down to one knee, fingers pressed against her temples. She saw a life she hadn't lived flash before her eyes. Most of the last memories centered around Naruto, then the flow subsided.

"Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto. The other three were watching her as well.

"Naruto-kun!" she shouted, jumping back up to her feet and pressing her mouth against her husband's. Naruto immediately kissed her back.

"Hey, hey," said Shikamaru. "We get it that you're excited to see each other again, but tone down the mushy goodness, would you?"

"You're one to talk, Shika," said Hinata teasingly. "You and Temari were always giving each other googlie-eyes as the opportunity arose. Diplomatic position my arse…"

"She's definitely back," said Shikamaru, sighing.

Hinata grinned. She had grown out of her stutter and shyness, becoming one of the most outgoing nins in Konoha (1). She had picked it up from Naruto, of course. "You realize you're going to have to figure out a way to get Temari to date you again, don't you?"

Shikamaru groaned. "Can we just give her a feather, please?"

"I'll consider it," said Naruto airily.

"Hokage-_sama_, plea—," the Nara started, but was interrupted by the bell ringing, signaling that lunch was over. They had five minutes to get to class.

"Everyone meet at the memorial stone tonight," Naruto instructed. "We need to see what skills we've all retained."

All of the time travelers nodded in agreement.

"Well then," said Naruto brightly. "Time to get back to class."

"Kami, _why_?" moaned Shikamaru, staring up at the sky as though it held the answers. "_Why_ do we have to go to classes again?"

"Because we're in the past!" chirped Hinata.

"Tch," muttered Shikamaru. "So troublesome…"

The others just laughed as they leapt away, Shikamaru trailing sluggishly behind.

* * *

It was just after 6:00 when the time travelers assembled at the memorial stone. Naruto and Sasuke had had the easiest time getting away, being orphans. Sakura had just claimed there was some extra credit she could be in, but Shikamaru and Hinata had had to sneak out.

"Okay," said Naruto. "Now…we just figure out what we can do, I guess…"

"Naruto-kun, I have an idea we could try so that we don't potentially destroy the training grounds," said Hinata, and didn't wait for his reply before checking all of them with the Byakugan. "That's odd…" she murmured after a moment.

"What?" asked Naruto, slightly alarmed. He didn't want anything to happen or be wrong with his precious people.

"Oh, nothing _bad_, Naruto-kun," Hinata quickly assured. "Just rather odd. It seems as though you and Sasuke have a little less than the same chakra as when I saw you last, probably because of the time-travel jutsu." Sakura and Hinata had been filled in on what happened – Hinata had died several weeks before the final battle while on a scouting mission. Whoever they were, they had wanted to gain Naruto's ire, and gain it they did. When he found out who'd killed his wife, he slaughtered them. "Sakura, Shikamaru, and I all have the chakra that we had as 12-year-olds."

Shikamaru nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense," he said. At Naruto's slightly confused expression – he had gotten smarter, he just didn't know what the Nara was talking about – Shikamaru elaborated. "You and Sasuke were the ones who originally performed the jutsu and sent your consciousnesses back – but it could have been your spirit. Chakra is one half spiritual energy, one half physical, so that must have influenced your chakra levels, and probably your control. However, you seem to have merely returned our memories, not our spirits. Thus, although we remember how to do all of this stuff, we don't have the chakra levels and/or control to."

Everyone nodded in understanding of Shikamaru's logic.

"Man, I really hope I still have the same control," groaned Naruto. "I really don't want to have to relearn that…" He immediately focused on creating a Rasengan. It instantaneously formed, and the blond sighed in relief. "Do you still have your Sharingan, Sasuke?"

Sasuke checked. "Mangekyou, too. It was also more of a mental switch than physical."

"Good." Naruto looked at everyone else and grinned evilly. They shuddered. "Well? You'd best get started on those trees. They won't climb themselves…"

They all groaned but did as they were told.

* * *

(1) I was re-reading this recently and realized that I had put "Naruto" instead of "Konoha". Oops! There goes that fourth wall! XD

**Heh heh heh. Those poor guys, having to climb those stupid trees again. Naruto and Sasuke are so lucky. Well, I guess that they're not, really, as they came back because their village was completely destroyed and everyone was dead...meh, details.**

**Review, please!  
**


	6. I Don't Need Luck, But You Do

**A/N: Fifth chapter today...**

**Disclaimer: Like heck I'm telling YOU my plan! You could be a spy for the rightful owner of Naruto, a.k.a. Masashi Kishimoto!  
**

Naruto jumped out of bed excitedly. Today was the Genin Exam! Of course, he had to fail them, but he would still pass in the end so it didn't really matter.

"Dammit, I'm going to be a laughingstock with those guys. I can see it now: the only Hokage to have failed their Genin Exams – three times. In a row. No, wait, it's _four _times, now, isn't it…ugh…"

The blond wrinkled his eyes in disgust at all of the orange in his wardrobe, but picked one out and slipped it on, along with his goggles.

_I can't wait to go shopping for new clothes_, he thought to himself. _I really dislike this color now…_

**You **_**were**_** quite annoying as a kit, weren't you? **rumbled the Kyuubi from inside his mind.

_Oh shut up_, thought Naruto, though there was no real malice in his voice. He and the Kyuubi had started to get along a bit better ever since Naruto had made a contract with him at eighteen. The blond would fashion a small fox body out of chakra to let the Nine-Tails into for a while, one that Naruto could dispel on command. In return, the fox gave him chakra when he needed it and wouldn't kill any of his friend or attack the village should he get out…not that attacking the village had been his fault in the first place, as Madara had been controlling him at the time. However, the contract allowed their two minds to link closer together, and the Kyuubi couldn't resist giving out snide comments here and there, at least half of which Naruto found amusing.

Naruto grabbed his kunai pouch and strapped it to his leg, then adjusted the goggles on his head. _I can't wait to get my hitai-ate…_he thought excitedly. He then ran out of the apartment, only pausing to lock the door behind him. Breakfast was overrated, anyway.

On the way to the Academy, he ran into Hinata and walked with her the rest of the way.

"Good luck," he muttered out of the side of his mouth as they walked into the classroom.

"I don't _need_ luck," the Hyuuga scoffed. She had been one of the top Jounin in the future. "You, on the other hand, most definitely _do_."

Naruto grimaced, then headed to an empty seat. It was right next to Sasuke. Hinata smiled and went to her usual seat in the back of the classroom. A few minutes later Sakura calmly walked in and sat next to Naruto, grinning at the blond. Ino followed close behind, and screeched at the fact that Naruto was sitting next to Sasuke (_that was her spot!_), and that Sakura was voluntarily sitting next to Naruto (_what in Kami's name is up with Sakura?)._

Sakura glanced levelly in her direction and then turned away, facing the front as Iruka walked in.

"All right, everybody!" the teacher said cheerfully. "As you all know, today's the day of the Genin Exam. We'll start with the written exam, then weapons, then ninjutsu. Mizuki here will be assisting me."

Iruka gestured at the silver-haired man who had come in seconds before. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the traitor, but calmed down immediately before his killing intent could alert the two Chuunin that something was wrong.

He sighed and prepared himself for the tests.

In the end, Naruto failed, as planned. He did abysmal on the written exam, though he knew all the answers, and made his handwriting atrocious rather than the graceful script it usually was.

The blond had missed nearly half of his targets during the weapons exam, and when he _did_ hit them, they weren't in the middle. Naruto could feel Iruka's pitying gaze as he trudged back into the classroom, pretending to be sullen.

_This is either a really awesome prank or a completely humiliating experience_, the Namikaze-Uzumaki thought to himself.

The ninjutsu exam was the hardest for him to suck up his pride and fail at – admittedly, he _still _couldn't form a regular bunshin, so that wasn't a problem, but who would need to when they had _Kage_bunshin. The henge was purposely failed, with him making the same mistakes he had the first time around. Kamawari was difficult to fail, so he didn't even try and just did it correctly.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," said Iruka heavily. "You fail.

"Oh, come on Iruka," Mizuki protested immediately. "He _did _make a clone, even if it was rather…sickly looking."

Naruto almost burst out laughing – it looked _DEAD._

Iruka shook his head. "Even if we disregarded that, he still failed the other two tests as well. There's no way we could make him into a genin. I'm sorry, Naruto, maybe next time," he said sadly.

Naruto nodded shortly and spun around, leaving the building in a huff. He sat in his usual swing and swung there, watching the exam finish and the new graduates come out to be congratulated by their families. All of the time travelers looked at Naruto, still sitting in the swing, and didn't turn around until he gave a slow shake of his head and jerked it to the side, telling them to go.

Just in time, too, as Mizuki appeared behind him. Naruto could easily see through his mask of fake pity and see the greed beneath. How had he fallen for this last time?

**You fell for it because last time you were an impressionable idiot without a family or any friend, and you just failed the Genin Exam for the third time. You had absolutely no experience, you didn't know about me, and you had no reason to think one of your instructors would lie to you**, thought the Kyuubi, taking great pleasure in insulting Naruto.

_You're damn annoying, fox_, thought Naruto as he tried to focus on Mizuki. _And blunt, too._

**Of course.**

"Okay, I'll do it!" agreed Naruto cheerfully.

Mizuki smirked. "Good. I'm sure you can do it." _You little demon brat._

Naruto grinned and ran away to do as he was told…or not.

* * *

**Ooh, what's he gonna do?**

**Review please!  
**


	7. Your Point Being What, Exactly?

**A/N: Sixth chapter up today. Hey, when anyone else got the alerts for the new chapter, did it skip out on the fourth chapter alert for them, too? Cause it did that for me. Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5 - wait, what? I'm not kidding. It's really weird.**

**Disclaimer: If at first you don't succeed, erase all evidence that you tried. Why are you saying that I failed to get the ownership rights from Masashi Kishimoto? I haven't tried anything yet!  
**

About twenty minutes later Naruto was standing by the same shed he had trained at last time. It had been remarkably easy to get in…well, maybe not for anyone that couldn't use the time-space teleportation powers of Hiraishin, or his own Orioke no jutsu (though he hadn't had to use the latter this time). He'd had to actually set the alarm off to make sure they knew the scroll was gone!

Really, when he was Hokage here again (or maybe when Tsunade-baachan was) the security would definitely be beefed up around the Forbidden Scroll and other such valuable works. Though _why e_xactly the entire Icha Icha series was there was rather odd. Well, Jiraiya _was _one of the Sandaime's students…Just because they were in a time of peace didn't mean they should be so _relaxed._

"Sasuke!" Naruto called, unrolling the scroll completely. "Look at this with your Sharingan, would you?"

Sasuke nodded and glanced down at the scroll, instantly memorizing everything on it.

"Haven't you already looked at this?" he asked blandly.

Naruto scowled. "By the time I finally got through all the paper work baa-chan left me, there wasn't any time. I had just opened it when Madara decided to attack."

"Did you choose to not use Kagebunshin?" asked Sasuke.

"I think you underestimate how good Tsunade is at not doing paperwork," Naruto sighed irritably. "Hell if she's doing that again! I'll personally supervise her to make sure she actually does it!"

Sasuke gave a small smile.

"Thanks Kami it survived," said Naruto, gazing at it. "If it hadn't…we wouldn't be here right now."

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto heaved a sigh. "Well, I'd best 'train' to get this jutsu under control…want to spar with me?"

The ANBU Commander hesitated.

"Academy stuff only," said Naruto, raising his hands. "No Hiraishin or Kagebunshin."

"Sparring it is, then," said Sasuke, immediately throwing a blunted kunai at his Hokage.

"You're on," said Naruto enthusiastically, reaching into his own pouch.

* * *

A couple hours later the two nins felt a chakra signal approaching. Sasuke quickly hid (he didn't want to have to explain why he was there), while Naruto grabbed the scroll and slung it over his back, then bent over, pretending to pant like he was exhausted, just as Iruka burst into the clearing.

"Naruto!" the Chuunin growled. "Why did you—"

"Hey Iruka-sensei!" Naruto greeted him cheerfully. "It didn't take you long to find me. I only mastered one jutsu!"

Iruka blinked. _Huh?_ "What are you talking about, Naruto?"

The blond gave a fake grin, then proclaimed, "Mizuki-sensei said that if I learned one jutsu from this scroll I could pass the Genin Ex – get down!"

Iruka automatically ducked just as a Fuuma shuriken soared over his head. "What the – Mizuki! What have you done?"

Mizuki gave a jeering laugh. "You had that little monster protect you, Iruka? Your senses aren't as sharp as before…"

Iruka growled. "He's not a monster!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Naruto, eyes wide in fake confusion. Inside, he was burning with rage at Mizuki. _I can't wait to beat that traitor to a pulp again._

Mizuki laughed again. "You want to know the truth, brat? You want to know why the villagers all look down on you, why everyone hates you? It's because –"

"No, Mizuki!" Iruka yelled. "That's an S-class secret!"

The silver-haired man completely ignored the other man and carried on. "—because 12 years ago, the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in a human form. _You _are the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

_This is a lot less traumatizing the second time around,_ thought Naruto idly.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" he said out loud, taking a very vindictive pleasure in the expression on Mizuki's face.

"Y-you're a monster!" declared Mizuki, unnerved by the total lack of reaction on Naruto's part and then the insult. Iruka, too, was shocked – Naruto wasn't one that usually reacted well to surprises, especially ones of this magnitude…although insulting the surprise was spot on.

"And you're an idiot," repeated Naruto, shrugging. "Look, if you seal a kunai in a scroll, does that make the scroll a kunai? I don't think so. As for my lack of surprise, I'm not _deaf _you know. I've_ heard_ people call me 'Kyuubi brat' as I pass them in the streets, and I accidentally talked to him once when I was meditating." The last part was a half-lie – he'd actually been thrown off a cliff by Jiraiya because he wasn't able to access enough chakra for the Toad summon…meh, details.

Both Chuunin just stared at the blond boy. Mizuki was the first to regain his composure. "I'm going to kill you and take the scroll!"

"Are you?" asked Naruto coolly, raising one eyebrow. "I'd like to see you try."

"Naruto!" shouted Iruka, finally getting back on his feet. "Run! I'll hold him off, but you mustn't let him get that scroll!"

Naruto completely ignored this in favor of having a staring contest with Mizuki. He slipped the scroll off his back and formed a cross sign with his pointer and middle fingers. "D'you want to see what I learned today, Mizuki-_sensei_?" he grinned. Killing intent filled the clearing, making both men shudder. Mizuki took a step back. "**Kagebunshin no Jutsu**."

Both Chuunin stared in amazement as Naruto's filled the clearing.

Mizuki gulped and turned to run. Even if the brat didn't have very good taijutsu skills and fought like a tavern brawler, there were too many for him to fight.

"Uh-uh," said a Naruto who was standing right where he had turned to, waving his finger as though reprimanding a bad dog.

_How did he get there so fast?_ Thought Mizuki wildly. _Surely he couldn't make clones that far away from his actual body._ He made to leap away, but the blond grabbed him and sent him flying into the air. A couple clones jumped into the air and bounced off each other to get higher.

"U!" shouted one, kicking Mizuki.

"Zu!" shouted another, also kicking Mizuki.

"Ma!"

"Ki!"

"Naruto Rendan!" shouted the final clone as he kicked the teacher into the ground.

Iruka watched in amazement. Not only had Naruto mastered a Jounin-level forbidden jutsu in two hours, he had also created his own technique! He had also taken the news about the Kyuubi well, and had a very mature outlook about it. A scroll most definitely was not a kunai.

The blond checked to make sure Mizuki was unconscious before dispelling his clones and grabbing the Forbidden Scroll. He handed it to his speechless teacher, grinning.

"So, do I pass?" pressed Naruto, giving Iruka puppy-dog eyes.

Iruka snapped out of his stupor and grinned back at him. "Close your eyes," he instructed his student. When Naruto did so, Iruka removed the goggles from the blond's forehead and replaced them with his hitai-ate. "Open them now," he said gently.

Naruto opened his eyes with the familiar weight of his hitai-ate on his forehead again.

"Congratulations on passing the Genin Exam," said Iruka.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted, barreling into the man. "C'mon, c'mon, let's go get some ramen to celebrate!"

Iruka smiled and ruffled the blond's hair. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "Let me just deliver _this guy_" – he shot a dirty look at Mizuki – "to the ANBU. I'll meet up with you at Ichiraku's, 'kay?"

"'Kay!" said Naruto cheerfully, already running. "See you there, Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka flared his chakra and in a few seconds there was a group of ANBU in front of him.

"Mizuki is a traitor. He convinced Naruto to steal the Forbidden Scroll and then told him about the Kyuubi before trying to kill him," he informed the ANBU. They nodded, grabbed Mizuki, and vanished.

Iruka relaxed and headed to Ichiraku's. _Here goes my paycheck for the week_, he thought wryly, and laughed.

On the way to Ichiraku's, Naruto met up with Sasuke, who had left right after he did.

Naruto almost rolled his eyes. "You're so overprotective," he said. "I'm not in any danger in this time; you don't have to follow me."

Sasuke frowned. "Old habits die hard," he said.

The Uchiha had been the main guard for Naruto when he was Hokage, always making sure that no one could get to him. Although it sometimes annoyed Naruto that Sasuke was _always there_, he knew that the Uchiha didn't want to lose any more of his precious people, so he allowed himself to be watched by the raven haired ANBU. The Rokudaime was also aware that if he died, Sasuke would probably go off the deep end. It had been worse in the future, when Itachi had been dead, but hopefully it would be better now.

The two walked in a comfortable silence the rest of the way to Ichiraku's, Naruto ignoring the stares at the two of them walking together. The Uchiha prodigy and the dead-last Kyuubi brat? Obviously the brat had done something to the poor Uchiha boy.

Sasuke glared back at the people who dared sneer at his Hokage with such venom that a few of them stepped back involuntarily.

Feeling a dangerous rise in his friend's killing intent, Naruto placed his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder and shook his head. _It's not worth it._

Sasuke scowled.

"See you tomorrow!" said Naruto cheerfully as they reached Ichiraku's. "Hope we get on the same team," he added quietly.

Sasuke gave a small smile, then turned and walked towards his apartment. As Naruto watched him walk away, he took it as a good sign that the Uchiha was comfortable enough to leave him here without watching over him. He turned and entered the ramen stand. Iruka was already sitting at the bar.

"Iruka-sensei!" shouted Naruto, running over to him.

"Hey, Naruto," said the Chuunin. "What would you like to eat?"

Naruto's eyes lit up. "I'd like…"

* * *

**Okay, forgot to mention this before in Shikamaru's chapter (chapter 4, right?), but this is slightly AU. Obviously. Naruto managed to convince Sasuke to come back after he killed Danzou, unlike in the manga version. Sasuke was eventually trusted again, and he became ANBU Commander as well as Naruto's main protector.**

**Sorry if the action was kind of weird along with the dialogue. With the action thing - I don't know the words for attacks like uppercut or backswing or anything. I mean, I know _of _them, just not very much, and probably not for fight scenes...I'll try my best. Seriously, I'm sorry if action scenes are awful...oh, and with the dialogue - one, I tried to make it a bit different, just because this is fanfiction, y'know. The other thing about the dialogue...heh heh, it's by memory. No Internet access, remember? I don't have the first book b/c of the Orioke no Jutsu - I'm not perverted. I'm not a lesbian. I think that's a really weird (if sometimes useful, much to my chagrin) jutsu. And I have a little brother that I don't want seeing that...  
**

**Review, please!  
**


	8. What the Hell's With THAT Time!

**A/N: Nya ha ha, prank on Kakashi-sensei!**

**Disclaimer: ...I have decided to work on a new plan to gain ownership of Naruto from Masashi Kishimoto. I'm still not telling you.  
**

Naruto laughed quietly to himself as he stuck the blackboard eraser in the doorway. If Kakashi fell for it once in the previous timeline, then he would definitely do it again as the time travelers had only been back for a couple of days and hadn't really changed all that much…yet.

"You know, Naruto," said Sakura, clearly amused. "That eraser right there is the reason Kakashi-sensei didn't like us when we first met."

"We'll give him back his memories after we take the test – which we'll win, of course – and he'll love us again," said Naruto, not even bothering to turn around while answering, checking to make sure the eraser would stay.

Sasuke snorted at the 'he'll love us again'.

"You know that he does," said Naruto. "We're his first team."

"So…what do we do while we wait?" asked Sakura.

Naruto pointed up at the ceiling. Sakura groaned.

"Don't worry, we'll join you," Naruto was quick to reassure her. "I'm going to meditate on the ceiling. Maybe talk with Kyuubi some…" With that, Naruto walked up the wall and sat on the ceiling with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.

His other two teammates shrugged and joined him on the ceiling. Sasuke opted for meditating as well, while Sakura just wandered around, trying to build up her chakra reserves.

Three hours later Kakashi walked through the doorway. The eraser fell on his head, leaving a good amount of chalk in his hair. The Jounin glanced around for the Genin he was supposed to test, but they didn't seem to be in the room…had they left?

Kakashi's faint stirrings of hope were broken by laughter coming from the ceiling. He looked up to see all three of the kids. There was a blond with blue eyes in a horrific orange jumpsuit – he was the one laughing. Then there was the last Uchiha in Konoha, dressed in a collared blue shirt and white shorts. He was staring coolly at Kakashi from his seat right next to the laughing blond on the ceiling, and he was smirking ever so slightly. Finally, there was a pink haired kunoichi in a red dress that was wandering around the ceiling and panting slightly. She was obviously very tired – how long had they all been up there? Surely not for the whole three hours…

"My first impression is…" _that you're all obviously talented. That you seem very dedicated to training. That you seem promising, unlike others. _"…I don't like you." The Genin all sweatdropped and the pinkette's arm twitched as if she was going to hit something…or some_one_. "Meet me on the roof," Kakashi instructed before he Shunshin'd away.

A few minutes later they walked out onto the roof from the stairway. The pinkette was arguing with the blond while the Uchiha just watched.

"—believe you fell asleep! I thought you were going to meditate or whatever!" she was saying.

"I _was _meditating! It was an accident that I fell asleep!" he protested. "I wasn't bragging, even if I _do _have higher chakra reserves than – OW!" The pinkette had just hit him.

The Uchiha smirked.

"Kuso, Sakura-chan, you hit so hard!" the blond complained. "Don't hit your Hokage…"

"I will if it knocks some sense into him!"

They had reached Kakashi now. The blond was massaging his head.

"And you're not Hokage yet, Naruto," added the pinkette warningly, cracking her knuckles.

"Yeah, well, you don't have any medical training, so don't beat me up when you can't heal me!"

"You don't need any help healing!" the girl shouted.

Kakashi had been watching them, amused, until the pinkette seemed to reference the Kyuubi. He tensed slightly, but saw that there was no malice in the girl's eyes, just a joking light. Had the blond told her? If he had, that obviously meant he trusted her…

The Uchiha had a small smile on his face as he watched the two of them as well. He caught Kakashi's eye and the smile grew a little wider, as though saying, 'Aren't my friends amusing?"

Kakashi almost laughed. These children seemed like they would e able to form a team. Maybe he could pass someone for the first time.

"Maa, maa, that's enough," Kakashi said, interrupting the two. They grinned at him unabashedly. "All right, let's tell each other about ourselves. Name, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future…"

"Why don't you start?" asked the Uchiha. The three smirked at each other, as though they had some inside joke. Kakashi didn't have the faintest idea of what it could be, though…

"All right," sighed Kakashi. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like…I dislike…my dreams for the future are…well…"

The three Genin twitched. They had all forgotten how annoying the Jounin had been when they first met him.

"Blondie first," said Kakashi, pointing at Naruto. He had been immensely amused at their reactions. Genin always seemed to react like that. _I wonder why…?_

Naruto grinned and straightened his hitai-ate proudly. "Okay! My name is Na—_Uzumaki _Naruto," he started out. Kakashi raised an eyebrow – why had he stumbled over his name like that? "I like ramen, training, toads, and _Hinata-chan_…oh, and my teammates, I guess."

Said teammates glared as the blond tacked them on at the end, almost as an afterthought.

Kakashi could tell it was to annoy them. He was also taken aback – they already thought of themselves as a team? His hopes for them rose.

"I dislike snakes, _perverts_" – Kakashi winced – "cursed hickies, 'Tobi', and red dawns. My dream is to become Rokudaime Hokage! Oh, and have a bridge named after me."

Kakashi blinked. That was weird. Cursed hickies? Tobi? Red dawns? …A bridge? And why _Rokudaime_? If he wanted to be Hokage, then why not Godaime? That was the position that was going to be open soonest. If he held out for Rokudaime he'd have to wait for a while.

Sakura and Sasuke knew exactly what Naruto was talking about. Snakes referenced Orochimaru. Cursed hickies – Sasuke had snorted at that – were the cursed seals, specifically the one Orochimaru had given Sasuke during the second stage of the Chuunin Exams. Tobi was Madara's codename in the Akatsuki, and Akatsuki meant red dawn. And then there was 'the Great Naruto Bridge'. That had really swelled his ego.

"You next, pinkette."

Sakura snorted. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like hanging out with my teammates/friends, medical jutsu, slugs, and training. I dislike all the same things as Naruto, annoyingly long hair," – she had gotten her hair cut back to the short length it was before she died – "and senseless death. My dream is to become a great medic nin, to study under Tsunade of the Sannin, and to help Naruto become Rokudaime."

"…" Obviously all of the info he had collected from the Academy teachers and others before this (it was why he'd been late…and he'd stopped at the memorial stone) was wrong. "You, Uchiha."

Sasuke twitched. 'Uchiha' was a tainted name. "My name is Sasuke." He refused to say Uchiha. "I like my teammates, training, tomatoes, my chokuto, and meditating. I dislike all of the same things as Naruto along with my _family_." Sasuke sneered the word. Kakashi thought he meant the only living relation he had alive; Naruto and Sakura knew he meant all of the dead ones. "My dream, my ambition, is to kill a certain Uchiha" – _Finally,__ some information is right!_ crowed Kakashi in his mind – "before he kills any more of my precious people," – _Huh?_ – "and to help Naruto become Rokudaime, with myself being ANBU Commander under him."

_Dammit! _Thought Kakashi. _None of them are making any __sense__._

Outwardly he remained completely calm as he said, "Tomorrow is the final exam to see if you can become Genin. It's a survival exam. The passing rate is only 33.3 %. Meet at Training Ground Seven at six thirty…nine."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had '_What the hell is with that time?_' expressions on their faces.

"Don't eat breakfast unless you want to throw up, and _don't be late_."

The Jounin vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"6:39?" scoffed Naruto. "'Don't be late'? He's not even going to get there before ten!"

"We know, Naruto," said Sakura soothingly. "C'mon, let's go get you some actual clothes…I thought we had finally seen the end of that monstrosity…"

Naruto followed her, still complaining, and Sasuke walked took up the rear, watching out for the two of them.

* * *

**The weird time came from an iCarly episode where Gibby told Freddy to meet with him at three oh two...I'm sure you don't really care about this. I applaud you if you're actually reading this. *Applaud* Did the stars show up? I hope so... can be weird sometimes...**

**Hope you liked this chapter. I wonder which Uchiha Sasuke is talking about? So hard to choose from...by the way, last chapter for today. Still, seven chapters in one day - praise me! Seven chapters! Admittedly, they weren't the longest chapters in existence, but still - SEVEN WHOLE CHAPTERS! Mwa ha ha ha ha! **

**Yeah, I'm really weird.  
**

**Review, please!  
**


	9. You're An Hour and A Half Late

A/N: Uh-oh, Kaka-sensei's suspicious of them...

Diclaimer: Fools! I shalt not tell thou of what mine evile plann is about! That would ruin the surprise for when it fails spectacularly. As such, I do not own Naruto yet, Masashi Kishimoto still does...

* * *

The three genin arrived together at Training Ground Seven the next morning. Kakashi was sitting in a tree nearby, masking his chakra and remaining as still as possible. Something seemed a little – _very – _off, and he wanted to know what. He hadn't counted on them being an hour and a half late.

Not that he was one to talk.

When the Jounin saw the three, he was surprised. The loudmouthed blond, Naruto, who had been wearing a horrendous orange jumpsuit the day before, was now wearing black shin-length pants, his shins themselves being wrapped up in bandages in the usual Jounin way. He was wearing black sandals along with that, and his kunai pouch was strapped to his right leg. The boy had on a black shirt with a red spiral on the front and black, fingerless gloves (with metal backing) that reached halfway up his forearm. What really surprised Kakashi, though, was the cloak the boy was wearing. It was a crimson red in color, with black flames licking the edges. It looked almost exactly like the Yondaime's, but in different colors.

Sasuke was wearing what looked like a standard ANBU's outfit (including the armor) that was in all black, and there was a crimson sheathed chokuto strapped to his back. He had no mask, of course, though Kakashi thought that it would – somehow – have fit him if he did.

Sakura had on a sleeveless red shirt that zipped up, the same gloves as Naruto, and a black skirt on, with dark blue shorts beneath. Her headband was still on the top of her head holding her hair out of her face. She had a kunai pouch strapped to her right leg, and several scrolls tucked into a belt around her waist, plus what looked like a container for senbon needles. She was wearing black sandals.

As they walked up, Kakashi could see that two of the three were extremely pissed off. The blond was trying to calm down the other two. When they entered hearing range, Kakashi could hear Naruto say quietly, "—doesn't matter, guys, really. I'm completely used to –"

"You shouldn't _be_ used to it!" snarled Sakura, clenching her fists.

Sasuke didn't say anything, but his lips were pressed into a thin line and his eyes burning with anger. His killing intent was on a level Kakashi had very rarely seen with genin. _What could possibly have set them off like this? And how the hell are they so strong?_

"Well, the point is that I am," said Naruto neutrally.

Sakura let out a growl of frustration and swung back her arm, punching the tree that was nearest to it. The tree quivered. Kakashi's eye narrowed. Something was seriously wrong with these "genin".

"Do they not have faith in the Yondaime's seal?" asked Sasuke, his voice icy.

Yep, that definitely meant they knew of the Kyuubi. The three must be talking of the villagers – Kakashi had seen the way that they looked at the blond when he passed them in the streets.

Naruto smiled sadly. "They're civilians. They don't understand. I just came out of nowhere the night of the Kyuubi attack, and Ojii-chan said that the Kyuubi was sealed in me. He trusted them enough to think that they wouldn't take their frustrations out on an innocent child."

Sasuke growled something inaudible. In one swift motion, he reached behind his back and withdrew the chokuto strapped there. He flung it at a tree across the training field where it was driven into the bark halfway, quivering. A few seconds later the tree literally exploded.

Kakashi jumped. Oh yes, something was _very _wrong with these genin. He was going to have to watch them closely. His visible eye narrowed further.

"Did you charge lightning into that?" asked Naruto blandly, gazing at the wreckage. "You shouldn't have done that in such an open space – you never know who's watching."

_Genin shouldn't know how to channel elemental chakra. Granted, he's an Uchiha, but there's __no way__. Could someone be impersonating them? But why...?_

Sasuke didn't reply but hopped over to what remained of the tree, grabbing his chokuto from the ruins.

"You shouldn't take out your anger on those poor trees," Naruto chided him softly.

"You're right," the Uchiha growled. "I'll take it out on those damn villagers."

Naruto facepalmed. "That wasn't _quite _what I meant."

"I agree with him," said Sakura, her eyes narrowed. "They're all fools; they deserve to have some sense beaten into them."

Naruto sighed. "Don't," he said.

The other two looked ready to protest.

"_Don't_," the blond hissed commandingly. It was the tone that Kakashi heard from a superior officer to a lower one. The blond, who wasn't the most likely person to be team leader, apparently was. "They're still my people, even if they're being…irrational. Having my teammates start a fight with them will only make the situation worse. Let's spar – you need to get some energy out."

Kakashi's eye narrowed further. _His people?_

The two nodded tightly and slid into battle stances.

Naruto grinned and made twenty Kagebunshin. He sent ten out to Sakura and the other ten to Sasuke, while he himself sat out.

"If you want, I can put them under a Henge," he called. Sakura and Sasuke nodded. They did not take insults to their Hokage very lightly.

A few minutes and (very violent) 'villager's' deaths later, the two walked over to Naruto and sat down on either side. Kakashi couldn't see very much of their fighting style, as the Uchiha had only used his chokuto and the pinkette had just pummeled the Kage Bunshin enough for them to dispel.

"Feel better?" asked Naruto teasingly.

They nodded.

"How did you live with this?" asked Sakura wearily, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Naruto shrugged. "I couldn't, at first. It hurt, the way people ignored me and belittled me all the time. That's when I turned to pranking, to try to get people to notice me. Then I had Iruka-sensei. He saw that I wasn't the Kyuubi and took me in. He's been kind of like an older brother to me. After that…well, I had you guys," he finished, smiling.

"Well, hopefully you won't have to return half of the villager's lives before they accept you," said Sakura, a small, tired grin lighting her face.

_What?_ thought Kakashi. _Hmm…I suppose they're just joking, or talking hypothetically…there's no way to return the dead to life. Of course, they could have a very warped sense of humor for spies._

"I hope a lot of things change," said Naruto seriously. He glanced over at the memorial stone. "…Where d'you think Kakashi-sensei is?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Who knows?"

Kakashi took this as an opportune moment to move from where he had been sitting for the past two hours. He Shunshin'd so he was standing right in front of them. They didn't look the slightest bit surprised, which disappointed him (he'd wanted to see their reactions), but also made him even more suspicious.

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei," they all said.

"Are you all ready for your final exam?" he asked, staring down at them. Oh boy, he was keeping a hawk's eye on them during the entire thing.

"Yep!" grinned Naruto. "We all ate breakfast, too!"

Blink. Stare questioningly. _Didn't I specifically tell them __not__ to eat breakfast? No genin has ever disobeyed that…that is, if they _are _genin. There's something that seems…old…about them. As though they've been through a war…_

"Well, anyway, I have two bells here." He held up the bells. "You have until…eleven to get them from me. A word to the wise: if you want to get them, come at me with the intent to kill." _If you're who you say you are, that should be at least a little difficult. If not…well, I'll deal with that when it comes to it…though I don't know how they've managed to pull something like this for so long…_

The three nodded, standing up quietly.

Kakashi was slightly unnerved and watched them warily.

"Begin."

* * *

A/N: Kind of lame, I know. I don't really like this chapter - it's really stupid, isn't it? Agh, I'm a horrible writer... *mopes*

Oh whatever, give me reviews or not, I don't really care. Stupid, dumb chapter...AGH! I HATE YOU!


	10. Ja ne, Subordinates

**A/N: I forgot to mention this before, but if there are any Italians reading this, YOU GUYS HAVE A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. I have also discovered that the Mediterranean is much better than the Pacific - definitely clearer, at any rate. Plus, where we were swimming: NO RIPTIDES! Yeah, so that was awesome, along with Venice and Firenze and Monza and Milano and just EVERYWHERE. I really like your country. And your gelato. That's really good, too. Aah, mint and stracciatella (sorry, I just KNOW that I didn't spell that right).**

**Disclaimer: *sigh* Naruto still (somehow) manages to belong to Masashi Kishimoto, despite my continued efforts. **

The three Genin leapt away into the woods, probably to formulate some sort of plan. Kakashi stayed next to the logs and memorial stone, waiting. They acted like almost like an experienced team. The fact that they acted like a team at all was odd in itself. With the different personalities, there should be some clashes. The Uchiha, definitely, wouldn't want to give up leadership to the class idiot. What was really going on here? What were they planning?

In the woods, the time travelers _were _planning, but not quite what Kakashi expected them to.

"So do we give him a feather now or after the test?" whispered Naruto, crouching next to his friends. "I know I said that we would fight him for the test, but—"

"It might be best if we give it to him now, otherwise we might slip up even more while fighting him. He's already really suspicious. We can't afford for this time travel thing to not work," Sakura said.

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Okay, right now it is," said Naruto. He sighed. "I suppose it's our own fault that we gave away so much…man, I really wanted to fight with him again, too…"

Kakashi turned as a kunai thumped down next to him. He glanced away from his book lazily to see a familiar _three-pronged _kunai. His eyes widened. _There's no way – _

"Hello, Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto, materializing where the kunai had landed. The blond reached out his hand and tapped a feather to the Jounin's head. Kakashi was too stunned at the jutsu to even consider moving. "**Remember.**"

As with the other three, the Jounin suddenly recalled everything that had happened in the future. Unlike them, it didn't take as long – most likely, figured Naruto, because of the Sharingan he had. It must have allowed him to compute the data easier.

"Ah," Kakashi said at last. "Naruto."

Naruto grinned.

"Maa," said Kakashi, giving his familiar eye grin. "You're shorter than usual."

Naruto face-vaulted. "Dammit," he muttered. "The fourth person…"

"I assume Sakura and Sasuke are back as well?" the Jounin asked with an air of nonchalance.

"Yes," said Sasuke as he walked out from the woods. "I performed the jutsu with Naruto that sent us back. An entity Naruto assumes is the Time Goddess met up with Naruto and gave him feathers to return people's memories. She gave me a feather, too, though I didn't meet with her."

Kakashi nodded, taking this all in stride.

"So are we going to continue with the test?" asked Sakura, also emerging from the woods.

"No, I don't really see any reason. My pride couldn't stand it if I was beaten by three twelve-year-olds, even if you _are _from the future. You all pass. You know, if you had just given me a feather yesterday, we wouldn't have had to come all the way out here…"

All three of them face-vaulted.

"Lunch time then!" said their teacher cheerfully.

"It's only 9:30," said Naruto.

Kakashi fixed them with a Look. "Growing boys – and girls –" he added hastily at Sakura's glare. "need lots of nutrition to help them grow. And you _don't _get that from ramen, by the way."

Naruto pouted. "I know that, Kakashi-sensei! But ramen's just so good, and vegetables all taste yucky!"

The other three time travelers stared at the blond.

"Did you just say 'yucky'?" asked Sakura at last.

"What's wrong with that?"

"You're nineteen years old, baka! Don't use the vocabulary of a five-year-old!" she shouted, smacking him on the head.

"Who else is back?" asked Kakashi, ignoring this familiar byplay.

"Shikamaru and Hinata-chan," said Naruto promptly, rubbing his head and wincing as he said it. "I'm planning on giving Ero-sennin, baa-chan, Gaara, and Nagato their memories back as well. Sasuke's going to – well…yeah…"

Everyone understood.

"…You know, you really should have given me the feather yesterday. I was really suspicious of you," murmured Kakashi. "You're absurdly lucky that I didn't tell the Hokage…"

The three genin exchanged glances. They hadn't thought of that. All they had planned was to play with Kakashi a bit – slight revenge for all the stuff he had pulled on them – but apparently they had gone far enough to make him suspicious.

"You…we knew you wouldn't tell Ojii-chan without proof," said Naruto, trying to convince himself.

Kakashi sighed. "Still, you know what they say about making assumptions."

"Yeah, yeah," said Naruto, rolling his eyes.

The genin all said: "It makes an ass out of u and me."

Kakashi nodded, his visible eye curving up in the usual way he showed his smile. "Don't act weirdly, you guys, otherwise people will get suspicious."

They stared at him.

"_Too _weirdly," he clarified.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Just don't go around spilling stuff from the future, okay!" said Kakashi.

They nodded.

"Good," said Kakashi, relieved. "Now…I'll go inform everyone I've finally passed a team, and then tomorrow we can get started…on…D-ranks…" he trailed off, realization dawning on his face. "Oh Kami, we have to do all those D-ranks again."

The three "genin" groaned.

"Kage Bunshin!" shouted Naruto desperately. "We'll use Kage Bunshin and it won't take as long!"

"We still have to do them," Sakura pointed out. "It just takes less time."

"Which means we'll be more qualified for the Chuunin Exams," countered Naruto.

Sasuke just sat there, mulling it over. "It will help Sakura get back in shape," he put in.

"What was that?" asked Sakura, a false smile on her face.

Sasuke just stared at her blandly, not scared in the slightest. Almost nothing unnerved the cool Uchiha. Plus, she couldn't use the super strength that Tsunade had taught her yet, because she didn't have the chakra control/reserves yet, and because she couldn't just start using Tsunade's prize technique out of the blue – she had to have the blonde teach her first. "Admit it. You're completely out of shape in this time. You haven't been eating properly and you only looked at books. You need this to help you get fit."

Sakura sighed. "I suppose I can't deny that…"

"Well then!" said Kakashi. "Meet at the bridge tomorrow at this time!" The Jounin vanished in a poof! of smoke, waving at them.

Naruto sighed, getting up. "We didn't even eat lunch," he said, staring at the unopened bento boxes.

"Because _you _protested about eating lunch at 9:30," said Sakura.

"It's almost 10:00 now," Sasuke said.

"Hn," said Naruto, grabbing a bento. "I'm going home. Ja ne, subordinates." He started walking away from them, then disappeared using Hiraishin – he had spent some time setting up the seals all over town the previous night.

His two teammates watched him go.

"'Subordinates'?" asked Sakura, left eyebrow twitching. "I hate it when he calls us that."

"At least he didn't call us his minions this time," said Sasuke, smirking. He, too, left, leaving Sakura alone on the training fields, contemplating what to do.

A Kage Bunshin suddenly popped up from where Naruto had left. "You should probably start on those trees again," it suggested, grinning wickedly.

Sakura punched the clone on the head, dispelling it. She glared at where it had stood, then huffed and turned around, heading towards the trees.

Far away at Ichiraku's, a certain blond almost choked on his noodles as he laughed at his dispelled clone's memories.

* * *

**A/N: I know, total cop-out with Kakashi. Feel free to flame. You know, I don't really like this chapter much more than the last one...well, maybe the subordinates part and the clone...but that didn't really happen until the end, and wasn't the main point of the chapter...**

**...review? Flame? Refliawm? Whatever works for you...  
**


	11. Now I REALLY Want a Cigarette

**Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto, not me.**

Shikamaru sat down calmly next to his teammates, his body completely relaxed but his mind in turmoil. They had just taken Asuma's test, and while it wasn't that difficult to fake being unskilled (he was a genius and a _time traveler _for Kami's sake, he had plenty of experience pretending!), it had been hard to see Asuma again. The last time he had seen the man was as he lay dying right in front of him. Everything had changed that day, for the Nara.

The only good thing that had come of it was that he was able to comfort Naruto in his own grief. Shikamaru had been able to get him back on track because they had a connection, something that they could share. The Nara was good at getting the Rokudaime back on track when he was distracted, which was why the young shadow-user was – had been, would be – the Rokudaime's head advisor. And because of the whole "IQ-of-over-two-hundred" thing…

But Kami damn it if he wasn't torn in wanting to just run up to his sensei and hug him tightly…and maybe swipe one of his cigarettes out of his pouch. He _really _wanted to act on the latter part in this stressful situation, to help deal with the overwhelming urge of the former part. The Sarutobi wasn't guarding them very closely – after all, what 12-year-old would want to smoke?

_Me,_ Shikamaru thought wryly, a smirk twisting his lips. _The time-traveling 12-year-old who's actually 20. Of course, I wasn't the one who actually came back…_

He sighed. "Troublesome," he muttered, one hand absently reaching, out of habit, down to the pouch strapped to his waist to remove a cigarette. _'It's a filthy habit!' _Ino had shouted after about six months of him smoking, finally fed up. _'You should quit doing it – you're going to die young, from lung cancer or something, the way you smoke those!'_

'But they're Asuma-sensei's,' he had refuted mentally. 'They're all we have left of him.' Of course, he hadn't said that. He had just shrugged and lit another one. A few months later, she was gone.

"Hey Shikamaru!" Chouji's voice broke into his thoughts. The Nara jerked, his hand automatically moving towards his kunai pouch before he realized it was merely his friend talking to him. "You gonna eat your last piece of meat?"

Shikamaru took in the openness of his friend's face, the way that the Akimichi's expression carried concern for the dark look on his counterpart's face. The Nara was touched, in his own way, for the effort that his friend took in subtly drawing him out of his dark thoughts. Ino was, of course, oblivious, concentrated on her food and ignoring her teammates as to get out of there as soon as possible to see if her _Sasuke-kun! 3 _had passed his test.

'_There's no _way _Sasuke-kun wouldn't pass, Shikamaru! Don't you dare doubt him!' _a vicious-looking yet beautiful young woman in a very dark purple ANBU outfit growled at him, swinging her long blond ponytail over her shoulder flashed through his mind's eye at the same that a vision of the younger version of the same woman pummeled him on the head when he had dryly suggested that Sasuke may have failed (ha!) a few moments ago.

"…nah," the Nara said. "You can have it."

_Thank you, Chouji._

Asuma, however, was not as clueless to the byplay. He had watched the young Nara sink into thought after they sat down, eating his meal on autopilot. His eyes had steadily darkened with each passing moment, occasionally glancing at the Sarutobi, and several times his hand had twitched towards his waist, as if to grab something there. He also kept fiddling with his collar, as though accustomed to something else.

Asuma frowned and pulled out a cigarette. He was confused by this kid, and – the kid was staring at the cigarette in his hand.

"Don't mind if I smoke, d'you?" he asked the three of them. It was rather moot point, as he had come up to them and introduced himself with a cigarette in front of the Academy, and he would probably smoke even if they said no, but he figured he might as well ask, since they were eating.

Ino screwed up her face but shook her head. Chouji also shook his head. Shikamaru had an almost hungry look on his face before he closed a mask over it and just muttered, "It'd be too troublesome to disagree, and I don't really care anyway…"

"Shikamaru, it would've been easier to just say 'yes' or 'no'," said Chouji, still chewing. "You didn't have to explain."

Shikamaru shrugged, leaning back and yawning. His eyes were still bright and aware, however, despite the way they were half-lidded.

Just then, from outside of the barbeque restaurant, there was a yell of, "Shikamaru!"

The Nara jerked up in his seat as a bundle of red, black, and yellow sped past Asuma, stopping in front of the shadow-user. Asuma noted with some amusement that the diminutive blond in front of him, Uzumaki Naruto, was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Hey, hey, hey, Shikamaru, guess what?" the blond asked enthusiastically.

The shadow-user groaned, realizing that the blond had to stay in character and act freakishly hyper, before he wearily replied with, "What?"

"We passed!" the Uzumaki said cheerfully, pumping one fist in the air. Shikamaru could see his clear, blue eyes sparkling with amusement at the expression on Shikamaru's face in response to the over-the-top enthusiasm. "Me, and Sakura-chan, and Sasuke-teme passed Kakashi-sensei's test!"

Ino let out a squeal of joy that her _'Sasuke-kun!'_ had passed. Chouji just kept eating. Asuma watched the Nara and Uzumaki, amused. Naruto was still bouncing.

"I think Kakashi-sensei likes us!" he added. Shikamaru immediately caught the hint that they had given the silver-haired Jounin a feather.

"That's wonderful," the Nara said lazily, nodding his head and yawning again. Then, in order to head off any questions from Asuma as to why the blond came to tell him when by all accounts they supposedly weren't very close friends, he said, "Why did you come tell me?"

Naruto, thankfully, immediately understood. The Nara was ridiculously grateful the blond had grown out of the stupidity phase of his life. "What do mean, 'why did I come to tell you'?" the blond asked, folding his arms over his chest and pretending to pout. "We're chums, buddies! We didn't do classwork and skipped Iruka-sensei's lessons together! 'Sides, I wanted to see if you'd passed!"

"Yeah, yeah, we passed," Shikamaru said in a completely bored tone.

"Great!" Naruto said. The Uzumaki then turned to Chouji. "Nice job getting on a team with Shika on it, Chouji!" the blond said with a foxy grin. "I have to be on a team with Sasuke-teme!"

"Hey!" Ino shouted, completely missing the faint undercurrent of fondness in the Uzumaki's tone, though Shikamaru and Asuma didn't. She stood up and marched toward Naruto, who gulped, recalling the Yamanaka's tendency to not take insults towards Sasuke well. She would grow out of it, eventually…sort of…but that wasn't now, so Naruto took the wise course of action: he turned tail and ran, but not before dropping the bento he had snatched from the training grounds next to Chouji, who grabbed it gratefully and started eating it. Shikamaru noted vaguely that the blond was headed in the direction of Ichiraku's.

_Typical, _he thought. "Troublesome," he muttered out loud.

Ino sat back down with a huff, crossing her arms grumpily. "Che!" she said, her eyes narrowed. "That stupid Naruto! Sasuke-kun's better than him every day!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and stood, sensing that this would soon become a gushing flood of how amazing Sasuke was. He'd heard enough last lifetime, he really couldn't stomach any more at this moment. "I'm heading home," he said, strolling away. He lifted one hand and waved a good bye.

Asuma glanced down at the Nara's now empty place at the table and noted the pile of money left behind, obviously to help pay for the meal. Shikamaru had obviously seen that the Sarutobi had underestimated how much Chouji could eat. Asuma grinned. The Nara was a good kid. Lazy, sure. But good.

And evidently smart enough to escape when he could, the Sarutobi ruefully realized several minutes later while trying to block out Ino's rant.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, you guys. I lost interest for a bit, but I bounced back eventually! As evidenced by this chapter...**

**Yeah, so, I hope you enjoyed it. I kind of like Shika's perspective! I'll work on the next one possibly immediately (probably while trying to avoid writing my NaNoWriMo novel, which I'm completely failing, having only 13,000 words when I should have almost my full 50,000 by now)!  
**


	12. Twenty Times is Enough!

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto**

The next few weeks passed quickly. Team Seven was biding their time until they could take the Wave Mission (as they named it) by taking a plethora of D-rank missions. They breezed through them with the help of Naruto's clones, completing several missions per day. The rest of their time went to training, both with each other and with the other time travelers when Shikamaru and Hinata could make it (which wasn't often, and so was treasured).

Sakura needed the most work of their team. At twelve she hadn't been in very good physical condition, being used to merely relying on her smarts, and her chakra reserves were so pitiful, it was like a single leaf when there should have been a full tree in spring bloom. Kakashi trained her relentlessly, forcing her to use chakra and relearn chakra control until she literally dropped and couldn't move.

Sasuke was focused on retraining his body in the use of a chokuto, because although he remembered the moves clearly, and his body could almost execute the moves perfectly, he still needed to get his twelve-year-old body adjusted to it. He also honed his already sharp reflexes by sparring with Naruto...and Naruto's own personal army that performed devious tricks and pranks at the drop of a hat.

Along with sparring with his best friend, Naruto was trying to regain some muscle tone and speed. Hiraishin was good and all, but he needed the actual seals to be able to do anything, and he wouldn't want to have to give up a secret weapon too early. Thus he figured that he needed speed for himself. The other thing about Hiraishin was that though he'd only been studying sealing for two years, fuuinjutsu was easy enough for him to learn (the Namikaze clan was good at it as a whole), but he'd never had the time to tweak with the seal and see if he could improve it.

Kakashi didn't work with Naruto or Sasuke that much; he occasionally joined them in a spar, but mostly stuck with training Sakura and working on regaining control of his Mangekyou Sharingan. Sasuke would help him with the latter if he asked, but the silver-haired Jounin had worked alone with it for years, so Kakashi didn't need to ask for help too often, if at all.

Finally, the time came when the Wave Mission was open (Naruto had been periodically checking the mission roster for it). After a morning warm-up spar, they all headed out to the Hokage tower.

"All right…" Hiruzen said, glancing down at the list half-heartedly. He really didn't want to give them another D-rank, as they had already by far surpassed the required amount to go into the Chuunin Exams, but Kakashi wasn't protesting, so Hiruzen just shrugged and read off the options. "You can go shopping, help at the Inuzuka pounds, catch Tora—"

"NO WAY!" shouted Naruto. "We've caught that stupid cat _at least _twenty, maybe thirty times!"

The Sandaime sighed as he realized he could not deny that claim, nor could he say that Naruto was exaggerating.

"—or pick the weeds out of gardens around the village," he finished, lying the list down. He knew, of course, that there would be an argument brewing; Naruto wasn't the type that could stay stuck on D-rank missions for very long at all. It was a sign of his self-control that he had managed to last this long…it was a pity, if they had argued earlier, the Sandaime would have let them have a C-rank before this.

"Come on, ojii-chan! Give us a C-rank or something! We've done every D-rank in the _book _in _half _the time genin usually complete them!" Naruto whined. He knew that the Hokage and Iruka (the latter, duh) knew about his clones and how he'd been using them.

The Hokage glanced at Iruka, who nodded his head in agreement. Hiruzen smiled. "Well, it's just your luck that I have a perfect assignment for you right here," he said, patting a small scroll that was sitting in between the D-rank and the C-rank piles, specifically set aside when the Sarutobi had figured that Team Seven would be asking for a C-rank mission soon enough.

Naruto began to bounce up and down in excitement. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the immature act while Sakura facepalmed. Kakashi just gave his trademark eye-smile and ruffled the blond's hair.

"You may escort Tazuna-san back to his home in Wave," said the Sandaime.

"Yes!" shouted Naruto, punching his fists into the air. "C-rank!"

The door behind them opened and the familiar (to Team Seven) white-haired head appeared through it, sipping sake from a flask gripped tightly in one hand. He took a last sip and wiped the excess from his mouth.

"You lot are gonna be the ones gettin' me home?" he asked doubtfully, his eyes sweeping over them and taking in their youth. "You look like you're a bunch of weak brats…especially blondie here." He made a vague motion at Naruto.

The blond jinchuuriki quickly grabbed Sasuke's arm to keep him from doing any bodily harm to the bridge builder. He saw Kakashi do the same with Sakura nearby.

"We'll see about that," the Rokudaime said with a frosty smile. Despite himself, Tazuna shivered slightly. He covered it by taking another sip out of his flask. Naruto leaned closer to Sasuke and said, "We're not allowed to injured clients, remember?" The blond felt a sense of déjà vu as he remembered Kakashi telling him the same thing.

"Right, well, everybody needs to pack. Meet at the gate in twenty minutes," Kakashi said, eyeing the struggling girl he held with trepidation. Sakura had a very volatile temper when it came to someone threatening/insulting/injuring her teammates.

Naruto shoved Sasuke towards the door, breaking the raven-haired boy's unnerving, one-sided staring (read: glaring) contest with Tazuna. The blond then grabbed Sakura and led her out of the room as well, speaking quietly with her. Kakashi could see her shoulders relaxing as they walked out of his sight and had to let out a sigh of relief; they'd all forgotten that Tazuna had very much enjoyed insulting them when they first met, and it was only after they had saved his life a couple times that they got a bit closer.

"They seem to be getting along well," mused Hiruzen, taking a pull from his pipe and puffing out the smoke. "And though Uchiha Sasuke would've seemed like the more likely leader for them, it seems as though Naruto is the undisputed leader…"

"Oh, you have _no _idea," Kakashi muttered, chuckling and ambling casually out the door after his students.

The Sandaime sighed as the Jounin left. Hiruzen was waiting for Naruto himself to tell him, because until then, he would keep secret what he knew.

He had been watching Naruto during the genin exams and heard when the blond had explained the jutsu he had used to (apparently) send Sasuke and himself back in time. He had seen the love Hyuuga Hinata felt for the jinchuuriki, a love that Naruto returned just as deeply. He had seen them come together again, test their skills, return Kakashi's memories, and _train _– what they were training for he didn't know, but he _did _know that he probably didn't _want _to know.

Of course, he had almost dropped his crystal ball in surprise when Naruto had demonstrated the he used Hiraishen and Rasengan – it looked as though the boy had found his legacy.

He had seen everything and decided to let things run their course, with the Rokudaime Hokage pulling the shots. If the future was bad enough that the ever-optimistic, bright-eyed child Hiruzen loved saw fit to come back and change it, then surely they couldn't possibly make it worse…right?

Sarutobi chuckled to himself. Ignoring the inquiring look he was getting from Iruka, he motioned for the scarred Chuunin to pass him some more missions to sort and send out.

* * *

**A/N: Posting this at 1:00 a.m. Seriously, if there are any glaring errors, TELL ME. I'll fix it. Bad grammar and such annoy me, so I'm sure it annoys you lot as well.**

**Semi-random: Oh. My. Gosh. Seventh Harry Potter movie, Part I? Best one so far. Ooh, makes me shiver. You should see it...it's VERY good. **

**Random: The word "psychedelic" is stuck in my head and I don't know why. I'm not even 100 % sure I know what it means.  
**


	13. The Almighty Log

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.**

"We're going to have to live with him for the next few weeks, you know," Naruto said mildly to his teammates as they left the Hokage tower.

The other two nodded.

Sakura rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. "I guess I just forgot how he was at the beginning of the trip because we ended up liking him at the end. I was…really annoyed with—"

"Pissed at," Sasuke interjected. Naruto stifled a laugh as the medic-nin threw a dirty look at the ANBU Commander.

"—_really annoyed with_ him," Sakura said deliberately. "Because it's so unfair!"

The males stared at her, uncomprehending.

"Look," Sakura sighed. "Naruto is faced with hostility every day by pretty much everyone in the village, civilians and ninja alike, and even when we get someone from outside of the village, they _still _zero in on Naruto!"

"Tazuna doesn't know that I have the Kyuubi sealed in my stomach," Naruto protested, frowning slightly. "He just picked on me because I'm the—ugh, because I'm…" the blond jinchuuriki screwed up his face in disgust as he trailed off, and then burst out with, "BECAUSE I'M THE SHORTEST PERSON ON OUR TEAM!" Which, in Naruto's mind, equated weakness.

Passerby turned and stared at the trio walking down the streets, caught off guard by the loud outburst. One would think that in a _ninja village_, they would have gotten used to such things, but they still turned around every time something loud happened, whether it be Gai's shouts about "_the Springtime of Youth!_" or explosions, so apparently they were still learning.

Team Seven ignored the odd looks (and a few hateful glares that were aimed at the blond once they realized who had been shouting) and continued ambling along, only splitting apart once they had reached the midpoint between all of their houses.

A few minutes later, the three genin were assembled in front of the gate, having packed their supplies a few days ago and merely having to grab them. Kakashi appeared about twenty minutes later – only ten minutes later when he said he would meet up with them – Tazuna in tow.

"All right, let's head out," Kakashi said, pulling out his Icha Icha book and walking out the large gate. Tazuna followed nervously right behind the silver-haired Jounin, wanting to be closest to the fully trained professional as he was doubtful of how well the genin were trained and didn't much like the concept of placing his life solely in their hands.

Several hours and many rearrangements of positions in the loose circle surrounding Tazuna later, Team Seven passed a familiar, suspicious puddle.

Naruto took special care to stomp through it and only half-imagined the grunts of pain from the two Mizu nukenin.

The fight started out the same. "Kakashi" was torn apart by the Demon Brothers' chain, only for a cut up log to fall in the place where the body should have been. The Brothers ran for Tazuna, Team Seven got in the way, and the Demon Brothers were knocked out and tied up. Easy.

Kakashi strolled out of the trees casually, his hands in his pockets. Tazuna stared at the suddenly alive (to him) ninja, then looked at the log, then Team Seven, and realized that yes, they were _quite _capable of protecting him.

"Did you give thanks to the Log?" Naruto asked, completely serious.

Kakashi nodded solemnly, removing his hands from his pockets. There was a small scroll in his right hand, bound in a white ribbon. "I already wrote an apology, too. Two thousand words."

"Kakashi," Sasuke said slowly. "The log's completely destroyed. An apology's not going to cut it."

"Twenty-five saplings for a destroyed and/or unusable log," Sakura said absently from where she was leaning over the two Mizu nukenin.

The Jounin waved it off. "Don't worry. I already set aside money for the saplings; I'll buy and plant them when we get back."

Tazuna stared at them all. "What on earth are you lot talking about?" he demanded.

All four ninja turned to look at him.

"The almighty Log, of course," Naruto said, a vaguely puzzled expression on his face.

Tazuna just kept looking at them rather doubtfully, confused.

"Ah, yes," Kakashi said. "You're not a Konoha nin, you wouldn't know…"

The four huddled together for a second, debating fiercely, until Naruto was delegated to explain everything about the almighty Log to poor Tazuna, whose head was reeling by the end of the longwinded explanation.

"Gaara was never confused about the almighty Log," Naruto said, pouting slightly.

"Gaara's special," Kakashi said. "He doesn't blurt stuff out even if confused, and anyway, he spent plenty of time in Konoha. He had to have noticed."

"I suppose," Naruto murmured. "Oh well…I guess it doesn't really matter, does it? _We _worship the almighty Log, so it's all good!"

Tazuna shook his head. "Are…are we going on or...?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes," Kakashi said lazily. "Despite the fact that you lied to us about the ranking of this mission, didn't tell us that you were being targeted by dangerous nin, and are a rather annoying, sake-drinking, irritable old man, we're continuing."

Tazuna opened his mouth to protest about the last statement, but then realized that he probably shouldn't test the patience of his guards, lest they leave him. Silently, he started walking down the path again behind Kakashi, the three genin trailing behind and laughing slightly.

* * *

**A/N: Short chapter, I know. Sorry. But still, better to have a short one than have to wait longer, ne? Maybe...anyway. Hope you liked it! If you want to know all about the Log, check out Third Fang's profile. Everything about the Log is posted there. BTW, for any HP fans, I'm thinking about posting a Salazar!Harry fic soon, if you're interested. Thoughts on whether I should do it or not?**


	14. Letting Loose

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.**

Hinata sat somewhat stiffly at her place near her father and sister during breakfast. Just today her husband had left for the Land of Wave to protect the old bridge builder, Tazuna.

Despite knowing all the details of what would (had) happen(ed), and knowing how much Naruto-kun had grown in power since his _early_ genin days (it still amused her to no end that he technically had never become a Chuunin…), the Hyuuga was understandably very nervous, tense, and just all together in a rather foul mood.

Which is why, when she finally snapped at her family, it really shouldn't have come as so much of a shock as it did.

Relations with her family over the past month hadn't really improved. Hiashi had, of course, noticed when his daughter had actually grown some backbone and personality, though she was hiding most of it behind her regular timid façade – he was a high-ranking ninja, of course he noticed – and he was, in his own way, prouder of his daughter than he had ever been, not only because she had more confidence, but because he could _see _her increase in power, and was, dare he say it, happy for her. That did not, however, mean that he had lightened up on her, nor could he show that he knew how much she had grown, thanks to his own chaffing restrictions set upon him by the Hyuuga High Council, who could _not _see how his daughter had grown and would make an amazing leader someday, the blind old fools.

Hanabi simply stubbornly refused to notice the change in her older sister, despite the fact that Hinata was no longer the slightest bit timid or afraid around her, or that the older girl was driving the younger to a standstill more often than not during their spars with very few moves and perfect forms…nor could the younger see the older was holding back, her strength from her older age returning as she trained continuously.

The morning would have passed with no incident if several different things hadn't occurred right after each other.

One, Hanabi was in a bad mood as well, and was attempting (and failing) to get Hinata to show some sort of negative response to insults…in order to make herself feel better ("…?" was all Hiashi thought before he shook his head at the strangeness of girls). Hinata could see what her younger sister was attempting, and thus valiantly managed to ignore her for the most part. That is, she managed to ignore Hanabi until the younger girl struck a goldmine by suddenly going on about village troublemakers and idiots, Naruto being the primary subject of both. That soured Hinata's mood significantly.

Two, the Elders, who came in a few minutes after the Head and his children, were letting loose snide comments about weaklings of the Hyuuga clan, and glancing "covertly" towards Hinata, to Hanabi's smug amusement. Hinata's mood was now past the "acidic level" and currently going towards "boiling lava"…at which she would lose her temper. Explosively.

Three, a Branch member of the family had come in to serve the Elders, made some sort of a mistake, and the Elders invoked a reaction from the Caged-Bird Seal.

That was the final snapping point for Hinata. She could only put up with so much with an _already_ foul mood, after a full month of being looked down upon as worthless and having to hide her true talents, relationship with Naruto, and feelings toward what her clan was doing.

Well, _no more. _

"Enough!" she snapped, rising from her seat and slapping an open palm against the table. Most of the dishes on the long table rattled from the force of her blow. Hinata felt her eyes shift to Byakugan, as they constantly did when she was really mad. And right now? She was _pissed._

Hiashi, having seen this mood before from his late wife, knew that he should duck and take cover. He didn't physically do so, of course, as it would be unbecoming of the head of the Hyuuga clan, but he did calmly set down his tea in case he needed to make a break for it…if Hinata had as much of her mother in her as he thought she did, he didn't even want to _attempt _to restrain her until her fury had blown out.

The Elders turned to look at her in some surprise. The one who had been using the Caged-Bird Seal on the member of the Branch family released it, and the Branch family member quickly exited the room after giving a grateful glance in Hinata's direction. Of course, dear thing, he thought it was all for him that she had lost her temper finally…well, if Hinata ever figured that out, she certainly wouldn't see fit to correct that it was merely that on top of _everything else_ that that had completely pissed her off. Easier to get better relations with the Branch family by just not mentioning that little detail, although, yes, the Caged-Bird Seal _had _always disgusted her.

"I am _tired of it_!" she hissed. "I am _tired _of your whispers of how I'm not the _perfect heir,_ of how I'm _weak _compared to Hanabi, of how I can _never compare_. I _do not care_! You – all of you – are so corrupt and have such inflated egos because of your positions on the High Council of Elders that it makes me _sick_! When I – _yes, Hinata_ – become leader of this clan, I will _personally _see to it that all of _you, _you pompous _jackasses_, know what it's like to be _Sealed_, what it's like to be _looked down upon_, and we'll see how _you _are able to stand up to such torment by members of _your own family_!"

The Elders were stunned into silence. Before they could start in on her, however, the Hyuuga heir rounded in on Hanabi, Byakugan still invoked.

"And as for _you_!" Hinata scowled. "I _get_ it, okay? You think I'm not good enough, _have_ never been good enough, _will never _be good enough. But that's not all there is to it – you're jealous that _I'm _the one that knew Kaasan, you're jealous that _I'm _the heir to the family, you're jealous that _I'm _the one who has friends and knows what it is to be _loved_! You've tried, and tried, and_ tried, _and it utterly _infuriates you _that your stupid older sister has close friends and teammates to lean on while _you're _alone, so you try to make yourself feel better by attempting to make _me _feel miserable. That's _enough, _Hanabi! If you would let go of your foolish _pride_, things would be so much easier, you could make friends, and you wouldn't _have _to be jealous of me."

Hinata seemed to deflate a bit at the end of her rant. Hanabi stared back at her, eyes wide and a little hurt as the truth of what Hinata had said hit home with her.

"Why can't you see that I _love_ you, imouto?" Hinata whispered. Then she let her Byakugan fade and strode out of the room, heading towards the training fields. She absently swiped at her eyes on the way.

Hiashi finally looked up from where he'd been staring at his tea, surveying the table and all the havoc/devastation wreaked by his eldest with a coolly detached expression.

_Well, _he thought, mentally smirking, _at least she didn't start in on me, too. _

_

* * *

_A/N: This and the next few chappies would be my Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Boxing Day/any-other-holidays-around-this-time-of-year-that-I-may-have-missed presents to you lot. Hope you enjoy.

**IMPORTANT!** All right, I got a _lot _of questions about the Log last chapter. I said, _in the Author's Note at the bottom_, that the whole Log thing was a sort-of challenge by Third Fang, and that everything about it was on his profile. Apparently none of you read said A/N, otherwise you would've known. *Sighs tiredly* Anyway. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Did you like Hinata's rant? I did. That was really fun to write. *Smiles mischievously*


	15. Not Such a Good Teacher After All

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.**

Team Seven plus Tazuna made their way quickly across the Land of Fire until they reached the boat that ferried them to the Land of Wave. Despite the necessity of having to explain the Almighty Log to Tazuna, they still managed to make better time than the first time they had gone on this trip. Kakashi informed them of this with a smug look on the amount of face the genin could see.

"You taught us next to nothing!" Naruto said, quietly accusing him, but with a joking tone underneath. "Who d'you think you are, trying to claim credit for our achievements like this?"

Kakashi put on a mock-wounded act, clutching at his chest. His visible eye curved into the usual u-shape that signified him smiling.

"I'm your teacher," he said.

The three genin looked very doubtful.

"I taught you three tree-climbing," he protested.

The three snorted. The man steering the boat and Tazuna shushed them, staring around into the mist surrounding them nervously.

"Yeah, because you were incapacitated then, had nothing to do _but _teach for a change, and you knew that Zabuza would be back!" Sakura said.

"I also taught Sasuke Chidori, Naruto how to harness wind chakra and apply it to Rasengan, and you…" here the Jounin trailed off. He fidgeted nervously under the head of the Medical Corp's glare, and looked pleadingly at his other two genin as he desperately tried to recall a time he had actually taught the pink-haired girl something one-on-one.

Sakura raised one eyebrow in impatience as Kakashi kept fidgeting.

"Can't think of anything, can you?" she asked tauntingly. "_I _learned most, if not all, of what I know from Tsunade-shishou."

"Fine," Kakashi grumbled, crossing his arms. "I'm a lousy teacher. Didn't we already establish this several years ago?"

"Yes," the three genin said.

"But that was _years _ago," Naruto said rather mischievously.

"This is the first time we've gotten you to say that _now_," interjected Sakura, not one to be left out of teasing their former-yet-current sensei.

Sasuke simply smirked and leaned back to enjoy the show.

For several more minutes, Naruto and Sakura badgered Kakashi, until he finally announced with relief that he could see the Land of Wave, and they better _SHUT UP _if they didn't want to broadcast their location to everyone in the land and thus possibly allow unknown foes to set an ambush for them.

The man steering their boat and Tazuna both looked very unsettled by their conversation, what it entailed, and were nervous of how loud the four were talking, despite the fact that the ninja weren't saying anything in a tone over a low murmur (whispers traveled, as the four ninja knew from teachings and experience). Said ninja knew that there _were_ in fact assassins lying in wait for them, and it wouldn't matter _how _loud they talked because a trap was already set up.

"Hold on," Naruto said, after they had all gotten off the boat. His arm was thrown out in front of the other four to make sure they did so. "I'm going to send some Kage Bunshin ahead to make sure the coast is clear."

Before any of the others would protest (not that they would, as the ninja all knew there _was _a dangerous ninja in front of them, and Tazuna just plain thought it was a good idea), the jinchuuriki had formed the cross handsign for his favorite and most useful jutsu.

Five bunshin popped into existence in front of the Team Seven plus Tazuna. They immediately Henged into the forms of the originals.

Though they knew what to do, having experienced this before and also because they were Naruto himself, the blond made a show of commanding them to walk ahead of the originals to clear out any dangers. They were to fight if necessary, but otherwise merely dispel and allow the _real _Naruto relay to Team Seven plus Tazuna the knowledge that they could go on safely.

Briefly, before they all loped off as they were told to do, the real Naruto wondered if Haku was watching them right now and was on his way to inform Zabuza of the deception.

* * *

A/N: Too short, yes. A good place for either a cliffhanger or to just continue the story...yes to both. I like doing short chapters, though, so here you are. Happy holidays! Or if you don't celebrate any...have a good Winter Break?

Heh heh, I love referring to them as 'Team Seven plus Tazuna.'


	16. Quirks Are the Bane of Zabuza

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.**

The question of whether or not Haku had told Zabuza was answered when the clones were unaccosted the entire time…and when a gigantic sword was thrown over Team Seven plus Tazuna's heads. It lodged itself in a tree and then Zabuza, the feared Demon of the Mist, appeared before them, balancing himself on the handle.

"Not shaking this time, Sasuke?" Naruto asked quietly, grinning fiercely.

Sasuke shot him a dirty look as a reply and drew his chokuto.

"Zabuza," Kakashi said levelly. "The Demon of the Mist."

"So you've heard of me," the Kiri nuke-nin said, sounding pleased. "I've heard of _you _as well – the man who has copied a thousand jutsu, Sharingan Kakashi!"

Kakashi hummed in agreement to the name, his visible eye curving into a smile. "More than that now, I should think." The Jounin then glanced down at his students and casually walked over to stand next to Tazuna. "Well, I trust you all to take care of this," he said to Team Seven. He then pulled his copy of Icha Icha Paradise out of his kunai pouch and started reading it.

Team Seven sweatdropped at their teacher's attitude. Zabuza almost fell off his precarious position of balance on the handle of his sword.

"What the hell?" he spluttered. "You're not even going to _fight_? I'll kill your genin in a few _seconds_!"

Team Seven looked mildly affronted and made as if to protest, but then Zabuza noticed e_xactly _what Kakashi was reading.

"WHAT THE HELL!" he shouted. "You can't read _porn _in front of impressionable young children!"

"Too late," Sakura and Sasuke muttered, glancing at Naruto. He shrugged sheepishly.

"Hey, it works, doesn't it?" he replied quietly.

"It's not like I'm reading it _out loud _to them or anything," Kakashi defended, not looking up. "Besides, Naruto here was perverted before I even _met _him, so you can't blame me for that!"

"Yeah, well, at least I don't go around reading Ero-sennin's books any time I get the chance!" Naruto shot back. "And I don't even use Orioke no Jutsu anymore!"

Sakura and Sasuke both coughed out a quiet, "Konohamaru."

"Shut up," Naruto said. "That was nostalgia! And he needed to learn how to do a Henge better…just be thankful I _definitely _don't use the Harem no Jutsu anymore!"

Zabuza mouthed "Orioke no Jutsu" and "Harem no Jutsu" quizzically, not that anyone could tell because of the bandages wrapped around his face.

_Seriously, what the hell is this guy teaching them? Even if I weren't going to kill him and his students, I would definitely never, __**ever **__allow Haku anywhere near him. __**EVER. **_

"Still, perverted is perverted – and you created those two before you met me, so I'm in the clear, whatever, ah, material I may read regardless," Kakashi said, an almost gleeful note in his voice. He then spoke to the nuke-nin. "You _should _remember, Zabuza, that only the most powerful ninja have such quirks and actually live long enough to constantly annoy people with them."

Zabuza facepalmed. "I try not to think about those kind of people."

"Just like how we try not to think about Gai," Naruto muttered to his teammates as Zabuza started ranting about ninja he'd met with absurd quirks.

"I've actually gotten pretty used to him because of Lee," Sakura murmured back.

"Yes, well, that's you," Naruto said. "_I_, on the other hand, could _never _get used to him. Lee? Sure…eventually. Gai? Hell no. He was the one to originally come up with the 'Power of Youth!'"

"Lee's even more…'youthful'…than Gai," Sasuke pointed out.

"Yeah, well, at least he knew when to tone it down. Some," Naruto shot back.

"True," Sakura admitted. "Especially after I got to him – I even got him out of that awful green jumpsuit occasionally!"

"Please tone him down soon," Naruto practically pleaded. Sasuke didn't say anything, but Sakura could see the desperate light in the raven-haired male's eyes too.

The pink-haired kunoichi shrugged. "I'll think about it," she said with a wicked grin. Then she looked back at the Kiri nuke-nin who had been monologuing for the past several minutes. "Oh, I think Zabuza's almost done ranting about traumatic experiences with quirky ninja…although Tazuna seems to be the only one actually listening…"

They all sighed at Kakashi, would had his book raised in front of his face again. Zabuza hadn't noticed. Team Seven turned their attention back to what he was saying.

"—I can at least take comfort from the fact that I don't have too many quirks, if any."

"Manic laughter," said Naruto. "That's a given."

"Listing all the ways to kill someone in a happy tone," Sakura added, before realizing that, oops, he hadn't done that to them yet…hopefully he would just assume they had heard horror stories of how he did that. Hopefully. Then again, Lady Luck as of late had seemed to fluctuate back and forth from standing firm on their side to crossing over the line and consorting with the enemy for a while.

"Offing the whole graduating class of Kirigakure before you were even set to graduate yourself," Sasuke finished off.

"Smartasses," Zabuza said. "I'm going to kill you all. And the man you're guarding." He zeroed his gaze in on Naruto. "You can be the first to go, shortie."

Sakura and Sasuke glanced at each other, and then quickly backed away from their Hokage as a vein started to throb in his forehead.

"GODDAMMIT!" the blond yelled. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT HE COULD GET LOST BEHIND THE HOKAGE'S STACK OF PAPERWORK, EH?"

The blond time traveler then proceeded to create about a dozen Kage Bunshin, all of whom immediately pulled out kunai and charged at Zabuza.

Zabuza blinked, not sure of what to make of this reaction. "Goddammit," he muttered as he prepared to rip his sword from the tree and take care of this annoying brat. "I hate people with weird quirks."

* * *

**Omake! **(Starts the day teams were assigned)

Ino, as a person, did not really notice the finer details of things when she was fixated on something else. Thus, instead of noting the fact that Sakura had cut her hair to a short length when all the girls (except for Hinata, but she was chasing after that annoyance Naruto) _knew _that Sasuke "liked" girls with long hair, the Yamanaka had focused on the fact that Sakura was sitting calmly next to _her _Sasuke-kun, along with Naruto, because they were a team now!

She had scowled and fumed and ranted internally about how the universe wasn't _fair _to her, but sat down relatively quietly, plotting new ways to make Sasuke hers.

In light of this, we are now capable of understanding _why _she didn't take the first opportunity to realize that Sakura had cut her hair, and what the implications of that choice were (to the fangirls of the class). However, that didn't make it any less amusing when she finally _did _notice her ex-best friend's haircut.

It happened just after Team Ten had finished eating at the BBQ restaurant. Chouji, Ino, and Asuma were all leaving when a certain short-haired, pink-headed, very tired kunoichi trudged past them, muttering obscenities and something about, "arrogant smirks on blonds – just _has _to rub it in, doesn't he!"

Ino's mind registered the pink hair, and before it had registered the _shortness _of said hair, she had called out, "Hey, Forehead!"

Sakura lifted a weary head and looked at the Yamanaka. "Good evening to you too, Ino," she responded. Then, eyeing Ino's horrified expression, she asked mildly, "Is something wrong?"

Ino raised a quivering hand and pointed at Sakura's hair. "Your hair!

Sakura's face showed vague confusion as she ran her fingers through it. "Yeah, I cut it last night. Didn't you notice it in the morning yesterday? You were glaring kunai at our team for at least an hour while waiting for your sensei to show up, so there was plenty of time for you to have seen it…"

Ino shook her head mutely. Chouji pulled out a bag of chips and started munching on them at the same time that Asuma grabbed a new cigarette and lit it. Thought neither of them liked or understood teenage girl melodrama, they knew that it was polite to wait for the Yamanaka before heading out.

"You really should pay more attention to details like that, Ino-pig," Sakura stated, only half-joking – which was something Asuma noted, but not anything that caught the attention of Ino or Chouji.

Ino huffed rather grumpily, and then realized how this event was "significant."

"This means you've admitted defeat and given up on Sasuke-kun, doesn't it?" the blonde crowed, a delighted smile spreading across her face.

"Well, yeah," said Sakura, flicking her head rather impatiently to get her bangs out of her face.

Ino did a victory dance. Sakura watched in amusement. Asuma and Chouji just hoped the girls would finish this up soon.

"If Sasuke hasn't fallen for one his many fangirls yet, then I really don't think he'll fall for some helpless kunoichi who always depends on him as her strength," Sakura said forcefully. She was hoping to impart what she knew to Ino as a warning/advice to leave Sasuke and get on with her life, or if that backfired, to convince Ino she needed to get strong in order to have Sasuke acknowledge her. "I'm going to focus on being the best kunoichi I can, probably specializing in medical ninjutsu to help my teammates. You should find something you're really good at and work with that to help your team progress." With that final bit of advice, the pinkette brushed past the blonde, leaving behind a spluttering Ino, an indifferent Chouji, and a somewhat impressed Asuma.

'_Well,' _Asuma thought to himself. _'Looks like Kakashi must have gotten her to grow out of the fangirl stage somehow during her team's test, and apparently got her to train, if that's the reason she seems so tired…'_

"By the way," Sakura called over her shoulder. "There's a guy on Team Ten Kakashi told me about who seems really nice and could help me with my taijutsu. So don't even _think _about looking at Rock Lee."

The pink-haired kunoichi then continued on her merry way.

"Rock Lee?" Ino muttered. "Who the hell is that?"

Asuma was too busy choking on the smoke he had inhaled in his surprise to answer her.

* * *

A/N: First of all, I'm sorry this took so long. I've been away from computers and I'm lazy, sooo….along with that, sorry – I lied about the fight being this chapter. It'll be in the next one. But at least this one is a long chapter! …sort of. No, not really, huh?

Oh, you know what I realized recently? I made PF!Naruto a _lot _liked Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist…oops. On the other hand, I now have a lovely new crossover, so it's not all bad!

Okay, to **Albatross Aoba**: I'm a lazy person with ADHD who doesn't know what a cliffhanger is? All right. Let me address that in parts. The laziness: yeah, I am. I could make longer chapter, but I don't, because _I am very lazy._ I will not deny that. I'm not quite at Shika's level (nobody is), but still. To the ADHD: well, I don't have it in real life, but in terms of reading/writing fanfiction? …I get distracted very easily. For example, my thought progress while writing chapters 14-16: "Okay, I'll finish these chapters and post them as a sort of holiday present. All right, Chapter 14's done! Oh, now Chapter 15 is done…hmm, it's really short…oh well. Chapter 16…I can do this. I can write out the fight. I _will not get dis—_ooh, look, shiny new fanfic!" To the not-knowing-what-a-cliffhanger-is: I do know what they are. I made an error in judgment and looking back at it I can see that the end of Chapter 15 was not, in fact, a cliffhanger. You are correct. From now on I will only refer to something as a cliffhanger if it really and truly is one. If I'm wrong about it then, feel free to correct me again, and I shall retract my statement again. Still, I'm having a lot of fun with this, and it's helping me to grow as a writer, so I'm not going to give it up. If you don't like what I'm doing, don't read it. Eventually, I'll probably go back and rewrite this, maybe make it longer, but for _now _I'm rather pleased with it.

To everyone: If I ever mess up and type "Zazuba," it's because one of my friends for a long time was under the assumption that Zabuza's name was "Zazubasa." I don't know how on _Earth_ she managed to get that from watching the _dub_, but…anyway, ever since then I've had difficulties trying to remember the correct way to spell his name, so if I mess up just ignore it, please, or point it out so I can fix it.


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